[romwell]

> Unfortunately, the masses don't seem to care.

It looks like you know enough to hate it without using it.

What's up with the sense of superiority here?

The "masses" do care, but if you were an active user of the platform, you'd know that nothing comes even close to what TikTok brings to the table.

E.g.: do I care that TikTok censors LGBTQ+ crowd? Absolutely.

But guess which platform allows me to connect with that demographic the most. Yup, that's still TikTok. And what I learned on that platform changed my life for the better like a magic wand.

What you say is a prime example of throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Focusing only on the obvious and known downsides means being blind as to why it is the most downloaded app, which is what I try to illuminate by my comments.

And it's the #1 app not because "the masses" are stupid.

[andrepd]

>But guess which platform allows me to connect with that demographic the most. Yup, that's still TikTok. And what I learned on that platform changed my life for the better like a magic wand.

Can you elaborate further? This seems quite intense praise. What do you mean by "changed my life like a magic wand"? It's just hyperactive short videos, isn't it?

[romwell]

>It's just hyperactive short videos, isn't it?

It's not.

There is a fledgling neurodivergent community (people with ADHD, ASD, etc) who openly talk about what the symptoms look like from the perspective of people who experience them, how to cope with them, and how all of this fits into the larger picture of our existence in this world.

A lot of people have never been diagnosed because their symptoms don't manifest themselves in a "typical" way. DSM is written from the perspective of "describe how your teenage son makes life inconvenient for you" when it comes to ADHD/ASD, not "which everyday experience are awfully hard for you".

Due to the abysmal state of healthcare access in the US, including mental healthcare, and persistent stigmatization of mental healthcare, self-diagnosis is now effectively the first (and the most important) step towards getting an official diagnosis and care (or simply taking advantage of all the available resources).

On top of that, normalizing the discourse surrounding mental health disorders and neurotypes, and showing how ADHD, ASD, OCD, BPD, anxiety, depression, etc. feel to the person who experiences it has an enormous impact on adults who have been struggling all their lives without ever realizing why.

Realizing both that most people don't face the same challenges (i.e. that it's easy for them to do things that are challenging to you!), and finding that you are not alone, and finding out how to deal with it, and finding a supportive community - all of that is life-changing.

In fewer words, imagine having a shrimp allergy, but living in a society that does not recognize allergies and shames people who don't eat shrimp as "weak".

So you eat shrimp every day, feel awful because your body can't handle it, and then feel guilty for not being "strong" enough. "You are just not trying hard enough!", the society tells you.

Imagine discovering a community of people who have shrimp allergies. Learning that it's a thing. Learning that you don't have to eat the same things most people do, that there's a better way to experience food. Learning that if you can't avoid it, antihistamines exist that you can take to make the experience far more bearable. Learning that really, a shrimp allergy doesn't make you worthless as a person.

That's what the neurodivergent TikTok is currently doing.

My guess is that it just shows hyperactive short meaningless videos to you because either it doesn't have enough input from you to train the algorithm - or maybe that's what you like watching on of the platform. Perhaps your community isn't on TikTok yet.

But as one of the people ostensibly "harmed" by TikTok, I find it offensive that someone would so boldly speak on my behalf when my experience has been the exact opposite.

Hope this helps.