TikTok Tyranny

The numbing of the American mind

If you’re still into reading, you should subscribe, so I keep faith in humanity and refrain from making TikToks instead.

---

As mentioned previously, I had time to do a little unplanned experiment this weekend, spending an exhausting amount of time on social media, and the results are in:

TikTok sucked my soul out through my retinas one dumb dance at a time.

I knew it would happen, but I had to go through it to make a thorough judgment: I’m pretty sure this is how it ends. The world that is. Between our incessant fighting about identity politics, corporate oligarchy, mounting concerns over AI, and overwhelming debt to China… TikTok fits right into the disaster, distracting people into oblivion.

The irony is that you can find TikToks talking about this if anyone could peel their eyes away from the algorithm genie granting their every digital wish.

When TikTok first came on the scene I signed up and made a few awkward lip-syncing videos to some Bill Nye the Science Guy crap that was circulating. It was applauded by hundreds of Indian click-bots almost instantly. I was in San Diego hanging over the edge of a hotel bed complaining about it.

I was appalled by how blatantly the lowest budget Cardi B advertisements put this CCP-backed company on the map, and how everyone was falling for it! The app sucked. It was not entirely android compatible and would crash on me every few minutes. I couldn’t even type a caption accurately. Overnight, I had almost a thousand followers. I deleted it and made a vow to stay away from this Idiocracy-inducing software.

Fast-forward to 6 months ago, I opened a new account under the can’t-beat-em-join-em philosophy, still complaining about this being a weapon of mass destruction.

I posted stuff I made for my Instagram on it and refused to make TikTok videos. Then, I started finding cringy stuff and reposting it. Then, I made a fucking video. But I’m quitting now I swear.

Here’s why: these videos and media platforms are literally designed to dumb us down. Our dopaminergic pathways are being hijacked, and we’re becoming low-bandwidth, gambling narcissists. There are even clinical terms for this now: Problematic Social Media Use (PSMU) is a (controversial) psychiatric disorder that involves Problematic Facebook Use (PFU)¹. I’m serious.

Of course, it’s not just TikTok, but TikTok should have been social media 2.0, helping society rather than driving it further into the ground. Instead, we have the same ol’ shit, with a new and improved advertising scheme. You can run a #Challenge, do a brand takeover or work directly with "influencers” straight through the platform. Brilliant.

Meanwhile…society is visibly crumbling as we know it. I mean, at least we’ll have endless entertainment because the shit writes itself at this point.

Eh, fuck it. Just order yourself some DoorDash and scroll. This is too hard to think about, amirite?!

1. Casalea S, Banchib V. Addictive Behaviors ReportsVolume 11, June 2020, 100252