BITES // 03.05.20 // SOCIAL’S DOUBLE-EDGE
Every month we collect six of the best pieces of content published on the web and share them with you, because we believe that the most extraordinary thinking is inspired by looking to unexpected places. BITES is a reading list for those who want to bring a little of the outside, in.
1. THE TIKTOK TRAP
TikTok is more machine than man. Its hyper-personalized algorithm is key to the video sharing app’s success, mapping out interests and desires we may not be able to articulate ourselves. The AI powering the platform feels like telepathy, ongoingly learning preferences and fine tuning your feed based on how long you watch and how quickly you swipe. Its model prioritizes fresh content from new content creators, promoting creativity over popularity. This sophisticated, free-for-all template is an outlier to traditional platforms, but also to concerns over user privacy and the weaponization of data. At least for the time being, users are still willing to trade their information for a never-ending carousel of their favorite social media candy.
2. BATHROOMS NO LONGER A PLACE OF PRIVACY
Instagram’s contest for best backdrop is over: here on TikTok, plainest goes the furthest. Redefining what ‘world stage’ means in the modern age, the platform is altering the way we think about the traditional bathroom. A standard format for TikTok videos, the bathroom is simultaneously neutral yet intimate. And as the social app rewards creativity over clout, its lack of production value leaves everything to the imagination, helping dramatic entrances, skits, and dance sequences pop. This points to “the community’s unique ability to make the ordinary, low-key extraordinary”, but also to the escalating competition social media can spur, as we fall victim to comparison and attempt to outdo each other.
3. FREE FROM THE FILTER
An antithesis to social media rivalry, 25 women, from teachers to celebrities, were given an exercise in patience, receiving disposable cameras and asked to photograph their lives over a few weeks. Despite differences in vocation and background, the output was a collage of seemingly mundane, yet familiar subjects: the inside of a fridge, makeup products strewn across the bathroom counter, a photo of someone taking a photo. Perhaps what this normalcy reveals is that in the absence of the pressures social media can often infringe on us (comparison, instant gratification, extrinsic validation), the expectation to capture “the perfect” moment disappears, and we’re instead inclined to preserve the in-between, personal moments, uneditable and perfect in their own way.
4. THORNY ETHICS IN THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY
The dance world has been completely reshaped by the internet, especially as the most iconic TikToks are synonymous with dance challenges to popular songs. However, a growing issue is artistic credit, especially because it’s virtually impossible to legally claim a dance or trace back its origin. 14-year-old Jalaiah Harmon is the original creator of “The Renegade”, one of the biggest trends on the internet. But as other TikTok influencers joined in on the meme challenge, most failed to give credit, and were given opportunities like appearing in a Super Bowl spot or dancing with Jennifer Lopez instead of Harmon. In the age of the personal brand, virality means income, and “to be robbed of credit on TikTok is to be robbed of real opportunities.”
5. TIKTOK WANTS TO GROW UP
While Gen Z and TikTok go together like Millennials and Instagram, the young user base poses serious issues around data privacy and collection, advertising to minors, and inappropriate contact with strangers. How serious? 70% of 10-year-old girls used TikTok in 2019, well under the age requirement of 13. In response to these concerns, TikTok is turning its efforts towards capturing the adult market, critical to the platform’s growth and survival. However, audience fragmentation, digital fatigue, and the short lifespan of social media platforms is also at play — it will be interesting to watch whether or not older generations make the migration.
6. TECHNOLOGY TO SAVE US FROM TECHNOLOGY
A response to digital overwhelm and detoxing, Google’s Digital Wellbeing Initiative is an open sourced collection of ideas and tools that helps people find better balance with technology. Among its suite is the ‘well-being envelope’, a print-and-fold phone cover that hides your phone from yourself, aside from basic functionality (dial pad, clock). Several artists now require the use of phone pouches at concerts, allowing the crowd to focus better on the show, and less on recording and other distractions. As technology becomes more entertaining, personalized, and integral to everything we do, it’s just as important for us to recognize the line between necessity and excess, and for brands to acknowledge that sometimes it’s okay for users to disengage.
TAKEAWAY:
Social media works like any other addiction: the more you take in, the more your appetite for it grows. Once a place to merely connect with friends, social media platforms of today have evolved with our taste, promising hyper-personalized content, supplemental income, and free creative expression. However as we reap the rewards, the more we realize it’s a bottomless pit. We’re grappling with its powerful influence over the way we think, what we want, what we do. What does it mean to coexist and engage with social media, without sacrificing our digital wellness? Taking a note from Google, perhaps the future of innovation is to repair the damage of innovation.
