A FEW THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT TIK TOK

 First, from the New York Times this morning:

With this kind of difference, you shake your head and wonder why Republicans and mothers for their 5-11 year old children are resisting vaccinations.  (Click on that graphic to read it.)  In short, regarding Republicans:

... the conservative movement for the last 50 years has been built largely around creating a “political identity emphasizing suspicion, hostility, and antipathy toward the government, particularly the social welfare state.” The right has tied its political fortunes to railing against, and eroding, collective government and civic responsibility. Forced to choose between saving lives and the paranoia that has helped their hold on their political power for decades, they have, once again, chosen paranoia.

Regarding children, sure, they are far less likely to die if they get COVID-19, but almost as much as adults, they do contract this ailment, and while their symptoms are less severe, if not asymptomatic, they still spread the disease to others.  But parents wonder why it took so long for the FDA to approve vaccinations for 5-11 year olds (they just approved it as I type this), and read about some fearsome heart muscle problem (which is rare) and things like sterility and such.  As one in three parents don't get their children vaccinated from the flu, a similar percentage seems inclined to decline COVID-19 vaccinations.

TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service started in 2017 by Chinese company ByteDance.  The video performance tends to be short, from 15 seconds to three minutes.  After you watch this supposedly top ten from TikTok, you've got to wonder like me why it is popular.  Maybe you need to be young to appreciate the attraction.

Facebook has nearly 3 billion active members.  You Tube has 2 billion monthly users.  TikTok, around 0.7 billion.  But depending on the metrics, TikTok might actually be more popular than You Tube.

Want to watch something in the top 500 on You Tube?  Click on this.  Can someone explain to me why Dictadura is #1, and by a wide margin?  But this list wildly changes depending on when you access it.   #500 exceeds a third of a billion.  I don't get it.

#1 TikTok influencer is Loren Gray with 53.6 pings.  Then going down the list of highest, at #73 is the Rock, Dwayne Johnson, with BTS at #80, Kevin Hart #87, Hailey Bieber (wife of Justin) #92 and Selena Gomez #100.  You say you never heard of Loren Gray?  Read this.  Maybe she is #1 because of an incident.

In 2020 President Donald Trump threatened to ban TikTok in the U.S.  Had to do with China stealing secrets and national security, but had mostly to do with showing how tough he was on China for his re-election.  TikTok was told to sell the platform to an American company, and Microsoft began negotiations.  A federal judge blocked this effort and President Joe Biden revoked the ban, and asked the Secretary of Commerce to determine if this app threatened national security.

Chester Wisniewski of Sophos perhaps said it right:

TikTok doesn't pose any more risk to a user than any other social media sharing application. That isn't to say that there isn't risk, but it's not really different from Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Facebook of course has also recently come under fire for their policies.  Nothing to do with China and national security, but some worry about their site being a threat to democracy.

But going back to TikTok, it does collect all kinds of information like age, username, gender, e-mail address and like, which all go back to China.  Same for Facebook, which keeps this info for their use.  But somehow, because TikTok is linked to China, there is fear that they are spying on us.

TikTok allows you to advertise yourself or your product.  No question that TikTok is targeting audiences to spur interest.  Yet, as has been the case in China where the youth of the country are admonished for spending too much time on these social media searches, TikTok has a conscience by reminding viewers who spend too much time on this site to go to sleep.

But keep in mind that with a clientele approaching 700 million, with 12 million new videos to screen daily, it is impossible to keep a clean slate.  What do you do about...

... wide variety of “kinks” emerging on TikTok (usually with age-appropriate disclaimers). Their takes aren’t purely sexual: Kinksters often discuss healthy communication while exploring sexuality with partners. Some find themselves quickly in strange territory, as user @mackickinback did when her kink education videos were soon overshadowed by videos in which she wished her followers “good night” in creative and comforting ways, which quickly grew her following to over a million (literally) overnight.

But all is not innocence.  Further, like Facebook:

Given TikTok’s ability to build communities, it’s possible that it could become a powerful platform for organizing efforts. This potential could have ramifications for political protest . . . or it could create an economic herding effect similar to the way the WallStreetBets subreddit has used its sheer strength in numbers to reshape the stock market. During the pandemic, a number of “zillennial” investors emerged on the platform, with a keen interest in finances and day trading.

Then there is WeChat, a Chinese instant messaging and mobile payment app with a billion monthly users.  India has banned it, and so did Trump.  But that is a topic for another day.

You wonder about the timing, but speaking of Facebook, they just created a holding company called Meta.  Remember at one time when Google was getting too big, thus incurring government snooping?  Six years ago they just said Alphabet was now their shepherd, which today must run more than a dozen companies, one being Google.  Well, just last week the Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google for using anticompetitive tactics to preserve a monopoly.  Thus, Facebook is buying time.

But about Meta, Facebook remains Facebook, as do Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.  Meta merely sits above all of them, with a goal to begin to dominate the metaverse, the next digital frontier.  A metaverse unites the online, virtual and augmented worlds to make communications seamless.

That moment of peace will help you into your weekend:

-