[wizzwizz4]

It seamlessly adapts your stream to what it believes will increase “engagement“. That's a different thing to “what it believes you'd like to see”.

[throwaway2245]

TikTok has seemed to present me with shock/outrage content in the name of engagement less than any other social media - far less.

I almost always see content that is only fun.

That has made it much better for long-term engagement and positive for my mental health, rather than other social media's short-term outrage engagement that is wholly negative.

[wizzwizz4]

That means the TikTok algorithm designers are half-way competent.

[throwaway2245]

I intended this in contrast to your point above.

It could mean the algorithm designers have decided that optimising for fun is more effective at increasing engagement than optimising for shock value and conflict.

But, this is a different choice than other social media designers have made. It seems like there is some more wholesome motivation.

[wizzwizz4]

I don't think the other social media designers deliberately optimised for shock value and conflict. I think that was a side-effect of a naïve optimising algorithm: short term (i.e. until people just quit the social media platform entirely), conflict and doomscrolling are two of the most engaging behaviours.

[filleduchaos]

Have you ever used TikTok?