Is TikTok breaking young voters’ brains?
Is TikTok breaking young voters’ brains?
TikTok has made itself into a hub for Gen Z political expression. But as Zoomers change politics, how is the app changing them?
Whose law is it of headlines, that when they ask a question it can be answered with 'No'?
67Betteridge gets all the credit, although the origins go back much further.
Or, if you are publishing an article, "Did Betteridge create the rule of headlines?"
34
The kids are exposed to these hyper addictive algorithms, and the garbage content that gains ubiquity as a result, from a super young age. There is no way it's not screwing up development.
52No, it’s just like Dungeons and Dragons, according to others in this thread.
22Got my kids back for the summer, first time since they got phones (9 and 11-yo). They're hooked through the fucking bag. And that's with their mom having severely limiting their screen time.
If I so much as threaten to take their phones, they act exactly like an addict having their stash stolen. If a literal demon jumped out the phone, grabbed them by the neck and punched them in face, they'd go right back on the screen.
I listen in, and it's all high-pitched chatter at 100mph, randomly switching topics and formats. If the internet has fried my brain at 53, god knows what it's doing to them.
6This post scares the hell out of me. My daughter is 5 and sheltered but I know this is coming, I see it in other friends and families. Even the parents get sucked in and tell me about these addictive and fun empty headed music videos and it becomes a family event of consuming YouTube which makes me really question our Idiocracy future...
4
Just as much as YT, FB, Instagram and whatever else.
35I would say facebook is actually much worse. And even though you didn't mention it, X/twitter is as bad as facebook.
25Well that could definitely be the case. I'm amazed how well intact is Twitter still in terms of userbase, despite all the dramas.
2
Yes, but probably only about as much as every other garbage social media trashsite like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
23Omfg. What a trash article. Great examples of the spin the politicians are trying on, of tiktok. because people can use it to unite against an unjust system and that made them scared and therefore launch a negative campaign and force a take over of the whole app. I mean, come on!! Such a bad article.
There's more misinformation on fb. Marky Z, when asked why he let's all a that just spread around, said, he thinks people can just tell stuff is lies by looking at it. He knows that isn't true.
19I mean tik Tok is shit though. The fact that FB and X are also manipulative and shitty doesn't really prove your point.
35It does. American politicians and meta go along really well.
-2
An authoritarian government as evil as China’s having power over that platform compromises it. Tiktok escalates content that hurts western governments but downplays content critical of China. How many times have you heard about the ongoing Uyghur genocide and the over 1 million Uyghurs still imprisoned in China on Tiktok? Israel's genocide of Palestinians is boosted everywhere because it makes America look bad. While all attention brought to work against genocide is good, it’s important to note China has their finger on the scale pushing down content against their interests. China does things just as worthy of Tiktok activism and it is ignored by the algorithm on purpose.
Decentralized social media is really the best option for public discourse in the long run.
4Maybe people are just less interested in accusations against a state on the other side of the planet and much more interested in the open, horrifying and costly crimes committed by their "own".
edit: Also nobody in the USA is advocating for the oppression of the uyghurs so there's not much to protest here. The situation is almost completely reversed with respect to palestine.
7
It's never the parents.
16Parent here. It's always the parents. The biggest problems with young people are typically caused by lack of parental involvement and are next to impossible for schools or society at large to solve.
The catch is that any public figure or institution saying that out loud is more or less committing suicide. Just like I'm about to be roasted alive on here for saying it.
Shitty, inattentive parents do not want to hear that they need to do better. Parents who didn't plan ahead and just shove their kid in daycare don't want to hear that they should have moved to a cheaper metropolitan area so they could work less and spend more time raising their kids. Parents who went off half cocked and had kids in unstable relationships don't want to hear that they shouldn't have done that knowing they wouldn't be able to stay together in the long term.
Nobody is allowed to say that out loud, you have to read between the lines.
7why not both?
If parents keep throwing kids into the public piranha tub, I'm absolutely blaming the parents, but I will still question why we keep a public piranha tub.
5We need to look outside of social media. Doesn’t mean the media we consume don’t play a role in shaping opinions. The short attention spans and highly simplified messaging encouraged by endless scrolling on social media platforms play right into the hands of populists who trade in slogans, scapegoats and easy solutions. The algorithm takes care of the rest. Once you’ve expressed an interest in politically edgy content, you will be served more of that, to the point where your perception of reality will be completely shaped by that.
3
It's Dungeons and Dragons that did. And fidget spinners.
14Don't forget the records that convey Satanic messaging when played backwards at 1.5x speed
10
No.
3No more than any other social network and more likely to be less so. This just seems to be a justification for future government action against the app/company.
-3It's pretty sad to see Vox's decline into gutter clickbait media. I guess it was inevitable once Klein and Yglesias left, and their mediocre minions took over.
-5Can you break that which doesn't exist?
Especially using mainstream social media for politics. Owch
-5It's not changing them, it's breaking them free of the bullshit authorized narrative the government has over other social media platforms. It allows us to talk to each other which the government does not want. It's a tool for class consciousness.
-8Lmao
9lol
9Good guy CCP, breaking us free of government control, must be so good to live under them 🥰 more CCP control pls 😍🥰🥰
5