On January 18th, I was one of millions of Americans, scrolling through Tiktok when the all-you-can-eat video buffet service suddenly stopped just before the federal ban came into effect.
It was a breathtaking moment when I was mourning me. For daily doses of Hollywood gossip, video game news, anime updates, where did I wonder where I was going now?
Tiktok, owned by a Chinese company, was bytedance, and rose to life the next day, facing legal deadlines to find or face a ban on US owners. President Trump then quickly signed an executive order extending the window for Tiktok’s sale to April 5th.
With that new deadline approaching, Tiktok’s fate, claiming more than 170 million American users, remains uncertain. However, for now, at least, it seems unlikely that there will be a repeated blackout in January.
Last month, Trump He told reporters That he can extend the deadline again. And while bytedance has not confirmed sales plans, Oracle, Data Center Company and others have emerged as potential suitors.
The latest deadlines provide convenient members to reflect on the role of apps in society. This is what I found.
Tiktok is still the best short video app
Tiktok started as Musical.ly 11 years ago. It’s an app for users to post lip sync videos, but over time it has evolved into a generic video app that lets people scroll through short clips of news and entertainment. Currently, there are over 1 billion users worldwide.
With Tiktok’s popularity surged worldwide over the past five years, Meta, Google and others have created clones that allow users to scroll through video clips endlessly. but Young users still prefer Tiktok To watch a short video, according to a survey by research firm Emarketer.
Tiktok’s preferences may be linked in part to product quality. Videos made on Tiktok generally look clearer, more rigorously edited and catchy than videos made with similar apps like Instagram reels. (Why drink lukewarm cola when you can get a classic cola?) Tiktok’s tools, including the editing app Capcut, streamline the production of video for your app.
For me, switching to the reel felt crazy when Tiktok was temporarily down. Many users have posted videos they found to be incomplete, including a video of sourdough bread that I was asked to read the caption to learn how to bake the perfect bread. Why don’t you explain it in a video instead of a small text caption?
Meta, who owns Instagram, catches up to Tiktok’s editing tools. An Instagram spokesperson mentioned a company spokesperson announcement The editor is CapCut’s competitor for editing reel videos and is expected to debut in the coming weeks. This tool allows Instagram users to upload videos to a higher resolution, improving image quality, among other perks.
Tiktok’s secret source, which others have not replicated either, is an algorithm for people to decide which video they want to watch next. Many people in their research say that Tiktok surfaces the type of video they want to watch for everything from diet ideas to video games, and glues them to the screen for hours a day.
Mental health concerns are rising
The effectiveness of Tiktok in keeping people scrolling has been a topic of widespread concern among parents and academic researchers wondering whether people could be thought of as obsessed with apps, just like video game addiction.
Research on this topic continues and remains conclusive. One, It was released last year He also looked into the overuse of Tiktok, led by Christian Montag, a professor of cognitive and brain science at the University of Macau in China. The study reported that although few people involved 378 participants of various ages, they were obsessed with Tiktok.
But broadly speaking, the consensus from multiple studies on Tiktok and other social media apps is that young people are more likely to report being addicted, Dr. Montag said in an interview.
“I don’t think kids should appear on these platforms at all,” he said of an app similar to Tiktok. People’s brains can take at least 20 years, mature and self-regulate, he added.
A Tiktok spokesperson said the app includes tools to manage screen time, including new settings for Tiktok to block children’s phone work during certain times.
Growth of a marketing platform for brands
Tiktok has become the main hub for companies to promote their products through posted videos and products sold at the in-app store, Tiktok Shop.
The company is working hard to make Americans realize the impact on the economy, running flashy advertising campaigns in newspapers and billboards, portraying them as a small business champion.
A Tiktok spokesperson cited a study claiming that Tiktok increased revenues for small businesses to $15 billion in 2023. This is the number that should be collected with salt grains because Tiktok asked for research. However, from scrolling through Tiktok, it is clear that many brands enjoy using it to spread videos showing quirky products.
Tiktok’s video confesses that he was inspired to buy expensive tools to remove dog fur from car seats and an automatic scrubber to clean the kitchen sink.
As for the so-called creators, the platform usually helps self-promotion rather than making money, as influencers post videos of Tiktok that often get viral, said actress Alyssa McKay, who has a follower of Tiktok in New Jersey.
The video, which earns 2 million views, can earn her a few dollars, she said. She added that it is because Tiktok only pays for the scenery that comes from people who have not yet followed you.
That’s still a national security concern
Tiktok was banned in the first place because he feared that US government officials could share data collected by American users with the Chinese government for espionage purposes.
These concerns peaked at the Supreme Court hearing in January. There, the Biden administration argued to ban the app. This cites concerns that Tiktok could create new pathways for China’s intelligence reporting agency that permeates American infrastructure. However, authorities did not provide evidence that Tiktok was associated with such a threat.
But Tiktok is linked to a small US data scandal. Tiktok confirmed in 2022 that four employees were fired for using the app to silly several journalists to track information sources.
Tiktok spokesperson pointed to a video This app protects the data of American users on server systems protected by Oracle, a collaborative US database giant, and prevents unauthorized foreign access.
Matthew Green, a security researcher at Johns Hopkins University and an associate professor of computer science, said that the US government’s security concerns about Tiktoc have been exaggerated as there has yet to be a major scandal, but it is effective because of the potential for hypothetical harm.
Many apps created by American companies are companies that collect information about us and sell insights to data brokers, marketers, including parts of China. But Tiktok in particular can gather sensitive data on Americans that are useful for hostile governments, such as address books, Dr. Green added.
“We’re leaking so much information, we don’t need Tiktok to make things worse, but with millions of different phones running this app, things get worse,” Dr. Green said.
Source: www.nytimes.com
