Over the past two weeks while I was recovering from my foot injury, I spent more time messing around on the Internet.
What I’ve seen is that news sites now report on TikTok videos – much in the same way they report on tweets from Twitter.
As if either is news.
They are not.
Often the twitter quote or TikTok is simply some random snippet of something that has gone viral. Here are some recent examples:
- TikTok user shows how much she makes in tips as a waitress.
- TikTok video “tell me your boyfriend won’t leave you without telling me your boyfriend won’t leave you”.
- TikTok video of a street vendor cooking food
- Twitter user comments on Mike Tyson punching a passenger on the plane
- Twitter user comments on Joe Biden’s speech
- etc.
With both twitter and TikTok, there’s no depth, no context, no thoughtful analysis or carefully presented perspectives.
They are simply ways to present un-curated comments and videos from amateurs. Many of them are poorly presented, badly scripted and quite banal.
It’s all mind candy – a sugar rush with no nutrition.
So why is TikTok so popular?
Probably for the same reason candy is popular.
And for the same reason I don’t eat candy, I won’t be consuming TikTok.