[NoteyComplexity]

What is the point of using short form content platforms as a consumer really?

Just put the political stuff aside, they are often too short for any details over any topics if not straightly brainrot, ending up making people get distracted and lost patience easily. I never a fan of YouTube shorts and instagram reels either because of the same reason.

Perhaps they are good for promotion, but as a user perspective, can anyone really point out one good reason to use these platforms?

[cyode]

I have several young cousins (gen z) who use TikTok as their Google. Recipes, travel ideas, news, fashion, shopping, how-to videos. While of course a lot of their usage is passive scrolling that trains their algorithm, they're very adept at using search to find the same things I find in my browser.

It's bonkers to me, but I guess my patterns of information lookup have just calcified with age.

[kshacker]

I’m in my late 50s, and I’ve been using TikTok for over six years. Before that, the only social media I used was Facebook—not Instagram, not anything else—but TikTok pulled me in from the very beginning.

At first, it was all about the novelty: lip-syncing and dance videos. Over time, though, my interests evolved. I started following creators for travel vlogs, occasional financial advice, health tips, yoga and exercise—and last but not least, singing, which I only began at age 55.

I don’t have many viewers, and that’s perfectly fine. My account isn’t about chasing likes or comments. It’s simply a way for people to see who I am rather than engage with a random, unknown profile—if they’re curious enough to look. It also helps avoid mixed signals: when you know who I am (even though you never truly know someone), you can usually tell whether something is meant as a dad joke… or a Daddy joke

As a result, my consumption of TV, Netflix, and HBO has dropped significantly. I find it far more engaging to follow real people and see what they’re doing with their lives. And here’s the irony: aside from the first two or three seasons of Survivor, I’ve never been into reality TV—yet somehow, I’m completely hooked on this one.

[ Wordsmithed by AI ]

Ps: I think my joke has been taken badly by someone. The point is internet with few hundred million or just few million people is a minefield and like now somehow jokes don't click and knowing the person behind the joke, being able to if not ID them at least have them semi public is a credibility bridge that anonymity does not provide. By being public, you are more accountable than you normally would be

[freddie_mercury]

Your categorical error is that you think people are watching them to cover details in topics.

They are a replacement for TV. You know, the thing that people used to watch for hours upon hours a day?

[NoteyComplexity]

While I am reading others’ view points and enjoy it; perhaps just straight to the point to your point first.

Can you tell me what exactly THE ERROR when I want to find a single good thing about TikTok when I don’t understand it?

For your view point, you logic is the following for the good reason using TikTok:

“Addiction is bad, but many people are using it anyway, just like any media back in the days.”

Are you really sure you have answered A GOOD REASON of using TikTok? Sounds like a horrible argument for me. Addiction is a bad habit to begin with, it won’t magically validated just because the media has been changed.

[throw334245]

What benefit do you get coming here and arguing with people?

Can you give a GOOD REASON?

[eudamoniac]

I had this discussion once before, I don't remember where, with I taking your position. The other guy seemed to think that entertainment was fungible, and so the entertainment of short form video was objectively better than long form, since it could theoretically be turned off at any point unlike a movie, and since it had infinite variety. Which I guess makes sense if you believe the fungibility, but I can't imagine associating in real life with such a person.

[majormajor]

The "I can turn it off unlike a movie" idea is wild. We've had the ability to pause and resume long-form TV/movies for decades.

Heck, how does that person think people read books? Six to ten hour sitting marathons?

[lerp-io]

i think you are missing the analogy of people not stopping movies half way

[Creamsicle47]

Shopping is a major one, I've found so many useful things from TikTok that no other platform has successfully been able to show me. It's also superior for viral growth and easily marketing new services in pretty much every way.

[echelon]

My wife loves TikTok.

It introduces her to new fashion, new restaurants, new places to visit. Local, hyper local and hidden, and her favorite travel destinations.

It's full of bite size tutorials. Tips and tricks. Genuinely useful stuff. Blogs and websites you'd find this stuff on are not as visual, not as well edited, and are hard to find or full of SEO spam.

It's introduced her to all kinds of hobbies. Gen Z is all about finding old consumer digital cameras from 2000 or even older Kodak one-use disposables and transplanting the lenses. TikTok nucleates these interests and trends.

The news breaks almost immediately on TikTok, and there's immediately insightful community commentary - why would you ever need CNN talking heads?

Every day there's a new "fad". It changes fast, on a day to day basis. Just a few days ago, there was this "an owl but from [x]" meme that was really cute/funny.

TikTok is genuinely everything. It's amazing. Much of the old internet it replaces doesn't hold a candle to it.

[kelnos]

> The news breaks almost immediately on TikTok

Not arguing against the rest of your comment, but I find the concept of "breaking news" to be generally terrible for society. News outlets should wait until they have enough information to present an event as accurately as possible, but the rush to be the one that gets there first means this is often not the case.

And I expect this goes double for randos publishing on TikTok.

[NoteyComplexity]

That’s true. I think the bigger problem is that many people seems to misuse the term, making any news a “breaking news” but oftentimes, it doesn’t.

The only valid use for “breaking news” imo, are disasters.

[techjamie]

My girlfriend used to be hooked on TikTok for political stuff until I started pointing out how much of it is comprised of half-truths if not straight up lies.

For example, one day she came over and showed me a short where this lady was warning women the Rs were starting their discrimination campaigns up, because Kentucky was looking to pass an amendment making women get certified doctor letters on if/the status of their pregnancy.

I called out how ridiculous that was pretty quickly and she told me this is 100% real and the lady in the video wasn't lying. I looked it up, and it was a real proposal[1]... Made several years earlier by a Democrat as a satire bill that was never under true consideration.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/fact-check/kentucky-democrat...

[soulofmischief]

Veracity is cornerstone to a healthy internet, and it can be very impossible for someone to fact check things on tiktok if their one-stop shop for consuming things and finding information is also tiktok. Corroboration, validation etc. are something I can do (to best efforts) on my computer with applications and websites that help me do this.

Don't get me wrong, I like instagram for the political commentary; but the vibe is different, Instagram is a supplementary source and not a primary one. It's still not a perfect system either, for example Instagram doesn't allow clickable links which can really hamoer organization and spreading important information.

[NoteyComplexity]

Thank you for your thoughtful story!

This is the reason why I have raised this question, as I don’t really understand why people are so into this platform since I don’t enjoy short form contents.

Perhaps just because it is short, with properly use, TikTok can discover many niche topics that we probably don’t know.

Does it change my decision of using this platform? Probably not because I prefer longer and slower paced contents, but I could at least know that TikTok is not just about brainrots or random people dancing like many people as claimed, at least now I know there are people finding their passion in this platform or discovering new place to explore.

[sgc]

So better, richer content twitter? I never used that site except for a brief period at the beginning of the current Ukrainian war, but it sounds like it appeals to the same type of person.

[tombert]

I have been trying so hard to get YouTube to stop recommending shorts to me. I am pretty sure that the "Show Fewer Shorts" thing you can choose in the app doesn't actually do anything.

My wife loves TikTok to a point that she will take it personally when I complain about it, but I absolutely hate the "vertical short form video" crap that's gotten popular. I'm probably just showing my age, even with my admittedly-quite-flakey attention span, I feel like TikTok and YouTube shorts are just kind of irritating. So much stuff on there is either low-effort crap with lip syncing to some clip from a movie, or shit yelling at me with burned in giant subtitles, both of which are almost certainly part of my own personal hell.

[maxglute]

What is the point of medium / long form content when you can get 80% of the dopamine for 5% of the commitment. Most "content" is mediocre, condensed short term doesn't waste your time. Most "content" TLDR down to a couple minutes pretty well, variety doom scrolling is spice of life and all.

[dyauspitr]

I used TikTok a few times and then uninstalled it because it’s very addictive. It’s a lot of nonsense like dances, and bits of cooking episodes, travel and destination clips, punchlines from TV shows and cartoons, memes etc. It’s a really sad thing to use honestly, makes you feel dirty for wasting all that time.

[NoteyComplexity]

This is also my usual understanding to TikTok although I know some people found new hobbies with it like the other replies, but the contents don’t click me because they are way too flashy and stimulating, and these really make me visually and mind fatigue.

Your situation is similar to why I have quit Pinterest. Memes and jokes are fun, and some of the images are inspiring, but it simply wastes too much valuable time which I can learn something new or take a deep rest.

[scarecrowbob]

It's wild to watch someone critique the utility of short-form content in a 4-sentence essay.

[NoteyComplexity]

I am not sure if it is a good thing when you see a question as an essay. It could goes in both way, so you better explain it.

[scarecrowbob]

Smug -and- illiterate? You really are a catch.

You know perfectly well that a question-mark does not a question make.

And, apparently you also see the utility in posting very short, dumb sections of content.

So, by your own standards, you should be able to do the math and answer your own so-called question.

[smt88]

It has 200M users in the US (I'm not one of them), which is about half of all citizens. Do you really think it's possible they have no point?

For most people, it's a distracting little jolt of dopamine and a way to get quick news or commentary.

It's definitely not good for our brains for that to be the main kind of content we consume, but it's not useless.

[NoteyComplexity]

It could be.

You don’t need something to have a point at all, just make something apparently cool or trendy, and there always a crowd rush into the trend. Could you find the point of Labubus or Stanley cups besides its popularity?

I am not going to against the news part, as you could see my other replies from someone who find niche hobbies with it.

[ronsor]

> What is the point of junk food?

The answer to this is the same as the answer to your first question.

[NoteyComplexity]

Just because it is addictive?

I don’t see this is a good reason to use TikTok.