Saved by Earnest Pettie
Why is Our Vocabulary Changing So Much?
When a creator posted a video, TikTok showed it to a sample audience and then expanded to bigger targeted audiences if it did well—a form of a recursive publishing feedback loop. Creators with no followers could still reap rewards for videos that were funny and understandable by anyone. This was uniquely powerful for the medium of short-form video,... See more
Every • The Boneyard Principle: Why the Next Big Thing Will Emerge From a Failed Idea
Social media thwarts us from expanding our vocabulary. You get algorithmically punished for using words that aren’t familiar. Why is this? It is a “demotic force” that is throttling our language and our expression.
It’s striking that TikTok, on the surface, prizes individuality but what truly sustains the platform is imitation and repetition and the all-too-human desire to be just like everyone else. Despite the many charming or strange or jaw-dropping videos on TikTok, far more of the videos are fairly mundane. They receive little attention, but the creators... See more
The New Pornographers — THE BITTER SOUTHERNER
Especially on TikTok, there’s so much remix meme culture. It’s not necessarily 100 percent original. And maybe that’s part of why it’s so hard to translate [TikTok content] to YouTube: for the most part you have to come up with something completely original.