Where Did TikTok Come From?
Innovating within an existing platform is always a challenge, because as media theorist Marshall McLuhan argued decades ago, ‘the medium is the message’. TikTok and Twitter/X have short-form content built into the design of the platform, which prevents depth. As I explore in The Bigger Picture, this also leads to what philosopher C. Thi Nguyen call... See more
Alexander Beiner • Myth and Metrics: How Social Media Robs Us of Ritual, and How to Revive It
The above problems with social media in turn generate massive costs for platforms, in the form of gigantic moderation teams made of tens of thousands of people, severe damage to platforms’ brands, and openings for competition to find more efficient means for distributing content. And no platform has been better at exploiting the weaknesses of socia... See more
Michael Mignano • The End of Social Media and the Rise of Recommendation Media
There have been hundreds of investigative reports, technical analysis, research whitepapers, statistical studies, PhD dissertations, and more about how TikTok’s secretive recommendation algorithm works. TikTok’s recommendation system is without a doubt incredibly complex and impressive, but so too are the recommenders that Facebook, Instagram, and ... See more
Eric Feng • May The Feed Be With You: how algorithmic feeds create the best content experience for users
What Pinterest was to images, TikTok is becoming for short-form video. Thanks to its infamous algorithm, the Bytedance-owned video platform now has over a billion global monthly active users, and kids and teens reportedly spend an average of 91 minutes watching TikTok per day (versus an average of 56 minutes per day on YouTube). TikTok creators are... See more
Andreessen Horowitz (AZ) • TikTok’s Future: Learnings From China
Despite TikTok’s design innovations being well known, other apps have trouble copying them because they were originally designed for a very different experience, and they are locked into it due to their users’ and creators’ preferences. This is a classic example of the innovator’s dilemma
knightcolumbia.org • TikTok’s Secret Sauce
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
The widespread TikTok-ification of all social apps is quite striking (and sad!) Literally, all apps (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, etc) have become one click away to an infinite stream of viral videos, playing non-stop.
The ratio of mindless consumption to building something meaningful on computing devices now likely exceeds 10:1, and ma... See more