I have been exploring TikTok now on and off for about a week. In an attempt to see if there is anything I can gain from it and if anything being a bit more informed over why I inherently dislike it.
So it is a bit of a mixed bag, for the most part all the funny stuff I see on YouTube is also on TikTok so that is something, but aside from that creating the perfect echo chamber is absolute insanity.
My biggest gripe is how TikTok seems to be obsessed with recommending me local content. Every other platform I have been able to either change my region or just through not engaging with parts, I can avoid anything related to South Africa or Africa.
In the broader scope I do not see why anyone would willingly engage with either of these two topics aside from wanting to highlight just how pathetic either is. I completely support the bashing of any and all Governments, Countries and Ideals.
Obviously unless those are mine, then I would like to be able to mute or block you good and proper.
TikTok I think knows this and makes it very bothersome to accomplish easily. Their web interface does not even have all the "do not recommend" features built in.
Their discovery is an absolute joke with the bare minimum tags.
Which just leaves search and because there hardly seems to be structured titles and tag usage you will get 5% results actually related to any search.
But, you can block or remove recommends to some extent, they use the phrasing "not interested" this actually does not mean much, so if you are trying to find the "do not recommend this person under any circumstance in hell" button then you will only find it on the LIVE content.
You can't remove content from your feed from a "creator" completely, you can only "not interested" them which is a nice way of saying oh well they will popup again later maybe then you will be interested.
Blocking seems to also be a hit and miss and you have to do the work to go to someone's profile, even then the blocking option is not always available. Like WTF!
Sure this is all about removing content, because the only thing that makes social media worth a damn is the ability to control every aspect of what you see.
Other than that it seems TikTok is a rather open platform, and they have a more direct method of rewarding people monetarily it seems which does explain a lot.
That alone is a reason that they should frankly invest a lot more effort to allow people to completely nuke certain types of content.
Which I will explore next in TAG filtering. See ya.
