One of my favourite takes that u saw was someone talking about all the things they could learn from TikTok and no one else - recipes, itineraries, life-hacks, news etc - apparently very confidently unaware of the existence of websites or the internet or cookbooks - ThreadSky

mconcagh.bsky.social • 67 days ago

One of my favourite takes that u saw was someone talking about all the things they could learn from TikTok and no one else - recipes, itineraries, life-hacks, news etc - apparently very confidently unaware of the existence of websites or the internet or cookbooks

Comments

onelifestand87.bsky.social•67 days ago

I also love the guys pushing the takes like “I thought chinese people lived in mudhuts & now I think they have more freedoms than americans” because having a take be that wrong would require no further self reflection

artiric.bsky.social•67 days ago

It's so weird because it's not like China is exactly unknown in popular culture? Like, surely karate and wuxia aren't that dated to be pop cultural references...?

stephenkb.bsky.social•67 days ago

Right, I'm sorry, but 'I didn't realise until now that China was not, IDK, still both reeling from the Great Leap Forward' is: how? How did you not realise that?!

worgztheowl.bsky.social•67 days ago

Karate is Japanese

twlldun.bsky.social•67 days ago

Actually it was developed in the Ryukyu kingdom (modern day Okinawa) under the influence of Chinese martial arts, it only took off in Japan in the 20th century.

simian60.bsky.social•66 days ago

Which part of Okinawa is not in Japan?

simoncraven.bsky.social•67 days ago

accept no substitute-su https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartitsu

twlldun.bsky.social•67 days ago

*buffs nails after out-pedanting Mark*

artiric.bsky.social•67 days ago

I need to watch my twitter brain, though, sorry. Knee jerk responses are not okay. I should have just done "Chinese Martial Arts" or "Jackie Chan," both practically ubiquitous with China internationally.

artiric.bsky.social•67 days ago

Technically the Ryukyu Kingdom, which was a vassal of Ming China before being annexed by Japan in 1609, and the art's name means "Chinese Hand" and is derived from Chinese martial arts, but I take your point.

twlldun.bsky.social•67 days ago

Wasn’t annexed until 1879, was a Japanese vassal from 1609.

tillyklein.bsky.social•66 days ago

OK, but this sends me the other way. I mean, if Americans are so insulated from the outside world (particularly through their media) and carry the belief that everywhere else is unbelievably shit and only they can get fillings when they have a cavity or whatever, that maybe it's not all bad.

tillyklein.bsky.social•66 days ago

(it doesn't really send me the other way, but you know what I mean)

mconcagh.bsky.social•67 days ago

I think non-Americans underestimate the extent that a majority of Americans do not regard other countries as real places with real people in them

mconcagh.bsky.social•67 days ago

I say this from a glass house, given that large swathes of the British political establishment struggles with the idea that Ireland is a real country

unilecturerrob.bsky.social•67 days ago

The CCP United Front Work Department spends a huge amount on such non-Chinese assets paying them to “promote China” & ‘create positive energy’. You see it everywhere: here/ X/ YouTube/ Reddit/ comments sections of major media like the Financial Times. And- omg- Quora was lost to the CCP years ago

unilecturerrob.bsky.social•67 days ago

The ones excessively/ repeatedly promoting it on social media (as opposed to the occasional comment) are definitely ‘dodgy’. Like the assets who upload “I can’t believe China!” 2160p YT videos where everything is sparkling and every citizen they ‘randomly’ talk to speaks at least passable English😉

mconcagh.bsky.social•67 days ago

Not even “you are not immune to propaganda”, these guys don’t even have normal amounts of propaganda immunity. TikTok seems to make people immunocompromised, the sociopolitical equivalent of those kids who have to live in plastic bubbles because they can’t survive a common cold

stephenkb.bsky.social•67 days ago

Right, I am much less convinced by the 'it makes people CCP types' as 'it really appears to make people very soft-brained'.

beijingpalmer.bsky.social•67 days ago

“We were told that China is authoritarian but everyone on this Chinese app only says good things about the government!”

flame89.bsky.social•67 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/flame89.bsky.social/post/3lg4llyclzc24

unilecturerrob.bsky.social•67 days ago

Indeed 🤦‍♂️

edtechris.bsky.social•66 days ago

Someone over there nailed it…

ie68.bsky.social•67 days ago

the solution here is that falun gong needs to push some of their shen gun budget over to building a tiktok/rednote rival

unilecturerrob.bsky.social•67 days ago

stephenkb.bsky.social•67 days ago

You've misunderstood the point I'm making. I've read this piece!

unilecturerrob.bsky.social•67 days ago

I hope so! My wife is originally from PRC- I’ve extended family there and been for long visits many times.

unilecturerrob.bsky.social•67 days ago

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/can-we-ban-the-tiktokkers-too

unilecturerrob.bsky.social•67 days ago

👆 worth a quick read

nutedawn.bsky.social•67 days ago

Something to be said for the seemingly overwhelming persuasive power of “attractive person talking confidently straight into the camera” pumped into the human brain in endless bite sized form

lines.snail.skin•67 days ago

When I was using TikTok one of the people I got on my timeline a lot was a grizzled ex-con British drug dealer talking about his experience doing time. So maybe the attractive person bit isn't necessary because this guy looked Rough.

lines.snail.skin•67 days ago

Though arguably I am not soft-brained (I will let you decide that).

nutedawn.bsky.social•67 days ago

It isn’t necessary but there has not been a form of visual media yet invented where people being hot isn’t an asset

nutedawn.bsky.social•67 days ago

I largely find generational discourse to be rubbish but I do genuinely wonder whether there is some element of people who have developed more scepticism towards social media from being here earlier having the chance to deliver more antibodies. Probably not though, we would probably be equally cooked

thewilderobin.bsky.social•67 days ago

Nahhh, I think "hot person talking confidently at me" is the basis of most cults, scams and extremist movements going back to prehistory. What's different is the ability to pipe it directly into the eyeballs (and actually I think it's basically the Fox News boomer phenomenon)

nutedawn.bsky.social•67 days ago

(“Old people got cooked by cable and the youths got cooked by Tik Tok but MY generation developed immunity to both by a historical quirk of being in between” is a lovely comforting notion, and therefore obviously bullshit)

scribblegurl.bsky.social•67 days ago

If you didn't grow up terminally connected, you probably do have greater immunity, by virtue of having developed empathy and greater critical thinking skills, borne of direct interaction with other people, in the real world. (Where you also face immediate ramifications for being a dick.)

alunephraim.bsky.social•67 days ago

The power of short-form films for propaganda (using the term quite loosely) purposes has been known for a very long time (we can literally reference 1984 here!) and yet we're supposed to pretend that it's all nonsense and is perfectly safe.

worgztheowl.bsky.social•67 days ago

When it first became big I remember thinking "err this is terrifying" because it's social media crack cocaine. However and whoever is using it, you couldn't design an app better for spreading terrible ideas and misinformation.

willcooling.bsky.social•67 days ago

I just think the whole thing is nuts. We wouldn't let the Chinese buy Channel 4 here or The CW in the States yet we let them own a black box app that is the most watched social media for kids? I don't need evidence of a problem to shut that shit down

sharonk.bsky.social•67 days ago

but the latter doesn't really fall under 1A jurisprudence

stephenkb.bsky.social•67 days ago

Yeah, I mean, not to reopen that bit of Early Bluesky Beef about whether the rest of the democratic world is wrong to go 'you do in fact have to give equal prominence to opposing parties', I am also open to the fact that US governments need to find weird reasons to do things sometimes.

rickchasey.bsky.social•67 days ago

How about TikTok is just fun, and all this concern about our brains is just good old fashioned “technology is rotting our brain” discourse which we saw with TV and with radio before that.

stephenkb.bsky.social•67 days ago

TV, radio and the invention of the printing press did all have huge consequences for politics and society, and most countries do in fact regulate all three to a greater or lesser extent, though.

stephenkb.bsky.social•67 days ago

It's not a rational position to believe, as both the last government and this one do, that RedBird IMI should not own the Telegraph but Bytedance owning TikTok is fine.

rickchasey.bsky.social•67 days ago

Banning TikTok does not strike me as “regulating” much, as much as it was a reflex from boomer politicians who don’t understand the technology.

The actual rationale behind the ban was probably more clueless than your average TikTok video.

A lot of chat from people who don’t use it…

alunephraim.bsky.social•67 days ago

One that will always amaze Americans for instance: political advertising is banned on British broadcast television except for a certain number of designated broadcasts that have to be vetted in advance.

lionunicorn.bsky.social•67 days ago

I'm slightly more at ease with states blocking/banning social media apps on national security grounds than I am with them doing so on 'it appears to make people very soft-brained' grounds.

stephenkb.bsky.social•67 days ago

I mean I just think that outside the US, unless you have deleted your pro-RedBird IMI posts, you don't want *the Chinese state* to own a vital part of the UK's media ecosystem.

stephenkb.bsky.social•67 days ago

And that people are apparently incapable of making that argument and are instead making a bunch of daft comments does make me go 'okay, yeah, it really is shaping people's heads'.

theangelofhistory.bsky.social•67 days ago

Isn’t that an argument against all social media ? Just reading my message here will shave 6 points off your IQ.

towit12.bsky.social•67 days ago

Sort of, but TikTok seems like the worst of all possible forms of it specifically because of the portrait mode short-form video format. People confidently just saying stuff into their phone cameras who literally can't link to evidence for their claims.

towit12.bsky.social•67 days ago

It's designed seemingly for the highest possible ratio of persuasive power to actual substance. Maximum pathos, minimum logos

onelifestand87.bsky.social•67 days ago

I mean I understand nothing about tiktok but I just don’t get how people don’t suspect that an app that chooses what you watch for you might be used for that

erichv.bsky.social•67 days ago

“I don’t understand this” + “here’s my opinion on it” combo is unbeaten.

onelifestand87.bsky.social•67 days ago

I don’t understand anything about it as in I don’t get the appeal at all. I didn’t think that was hard to follow

erichv.bsky.social•67 days ago

TikTok has more control over what users watch in the suggested feed than YouTube or Instagram, so your comment was based on not knowing about the subject.

stephenkb.bsky.social•67 days ago

Right, like, I look at it and go 'No, no thank you' so obviously I am missing *something* (also the people who like it are always such terrible ambassadors, because they are clearly addicted to it), but when someone goes 'this is influencing your thoughts' I go 'yeah, seems innate to the format'.

mconcagh.bsky.social•67 days ago

The way Will Stancil gets constantly yelled at for pointing out this very obviously true thing gives me the vibe of an alcoholic violently reacting to the suggestion that they’ve had enough to drink for the evening

onelifestand87.bsky.social•67 days ago

Real one for this couple of replies up

rossfootball.bsky.social•67 days ago

Every streaming app, whether music, TV or movies, does that, don't they?

stephenkb.bsky.social•67 days ago

And every recommendation app can be used to try and influence your thinking for that reason.

rossfootball.bsky.social•67 days ago

Luckily their algorithms are none too accurate. Here's what I'm recommended by Netflix, Prime, Apple & Disney. Never heard of ten, not interested in nine and already seen the other one.

onelifestand87.bsky.social•67 days ago

They also use it less I suspect because it’s harder to hide when you’re not doing current affairs stuff. Like it would really stand out if Netflix starts pushing Tommy Robinson docs because it’d be doing it instead of Wes Andrerson films

tpgroberts.bsky.social•67 days ago

I think it's also the pace of it choosing? Like, I'd be lying if YouTube hasn't introduced me to new content, but that's usually. "Wow, you really like J Kenji Lopez-Alt, have you tried Sohla Al-Wayly?" and is over 10-15 minutes of video not 15 seconds with immediate feedback?

onelifestand87.bsky.social•67 days ago

That plus you usually get a heads up of at least a title before you’re launched straight into someone telling you about these really interesting protocols they’ve discovered

hindchristopher.bsky.social•67 days ago

I see no problems.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LoQQK8r7mI4&t=3s&pp=2AEDkAIB

mobydills.bsky.social•67 days ago

guess what Tom.

rickchasey.bsky.social•67 days ago

Genuinely, as someone who’s on it a lot; it’s extremely good at giving you what you like.

People who have enormous amounts of conspiratorial content; they’d find another way to get that content.

If your FYP is all thirst traps and NSFW, that is on you, not TikTok.

mobydills.bsky.social•67 days ago

the irony of you talking about immunity propaganda with this take supporting the government regulating publishers because of speech they don't like.

lol

richard-jackman.bsky.social•66 days ago

All the alternatives to TikTok require conscious decision making to pursue information rather than mindless receiving what an algorithm has pushed at you.

nada-accomplished.bsky.social•67 days ago

It seemed like half the cooking videos were just people doing ridiculous, wasteful, disgusting shit for the rage interactions

mobydills.bsky.social•67 days ago

"oh you can get your information elsewhere, so we can just ban certain publishers"

lol

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply