Where Did TikTok Come From?
Some invest a lot of time and skill in crafting TikTok videos, but neither time nor skill is required. If TikTok “enables everyone to be a creator,” as its former mission statement proclaimed, this is because creative labor on the platform has been automated and deskilled.
ROGERS BRUBAKER • Hyperconnected Culture and Its Discontents
The second is more media than social. It’s driven by AI-powered and network-driven platforms that allow people to discover creativity, learning, and connection online. TikTok is an early iteration, untethered from a social graph and letting strangers connect across the globe.
Rex Woodbury • The Evolution of Social Media: Splitting Into Social and Media
TikTok is an eternal channel flip, and the flip is the point: there is no settled point of interest to land on. Nothing is meant to sustain your attention
Kyle Chayka • Essay: How do you describe TikTok?
the most important piece of technology Bytedance introduced to TikTok: the updated For You Page feed algorithm.