Tik tok;;a review.

 You have waited and I have yearned for this day where I will dispel the notions of tik tok being a stupid platform and whilst it does have many capabilities to which its intelligent AI captures information for possibly China to exploit by sending the information to different companies which then offer you things-that is just capitalism extreme and is no different than what facebook and others already do and continue to do. Tik Tok is not some overrated thing used by youths. It is used by so many people and it is so diverse and has so many types of people doing so many diverse things that it is a representation of the world itself. That I mean it. You can find middle eastern people, Africans and Asians of so many different countries and economic backgrounds; the form and function of Tik Tok just brings people across the world together.

I'd like to think of Tik Tok as the successor to Vine. Vine was where you could post short videos and well Tik Tok is just where you can post short videos that can be much more longer and can easily copy the same sound and visual elements so users can take part in trends. There are two components to Tik Tok that can be found which are most prominent ; the video posting aspects of it and the live feature. The live feature is its own freaking mega capital thing itself and hosts what could be an underground industry of live hosts who compete in "battles" for viewers to give them certain tokens of appreciation which match up into different monetary contributions to which people alone can make a living especially if they are apart of the coveted rankings. I am to say there is a new third part that takes the place of the friends unit to which you could see your friends or mutuals' posts and this new part is to be a competitor to "Be Real" You ultimately have to post an image of yourself and the background in this one. This element only came about in the last two weeks and so its not with that much development and history and even user usuage behind it to really talk about how and if people actually use it for it to be an important part of understanding what Tik Tok is.

I would say that the battles are something that have been recently expanded upon to which you can have four players that operate in teams of two and that the rankings have become more competitive. The rankings essentially are those who have the most likes and tokens given upon them so you know the person at the #1 spot made some great money that week. Its to be said that the lives do not consist of just the battles but chat features where at least 6 users can be on at once including viewers in the audience if their request to join is granted and then one where a person live can add three followers to chat with them. This element sets Tik Tok apart from Instagram and Facebook lives. Those things are very much outdated and its hard to get people who aren't already associated to live together. Its to be said that Tik Tok is the future of live streaming outside videogame streams; people just don't know it yet. I did not know about this world of lives but it is interesting. There are people from all walks of life. You have cooks, hobbyists of different crafts, streamers who play videogames ( there is a guy who plays GTA 5 and battles at the same time and carries a good persona meaning he is doing three things at once), sex workers, mothers of various ages, men of young and old  and people from every corner of the globe. It is amazing! Tik Tok truly is like the "melting pot" of the world. You can find anything there that is legal I am to say. You can find people drawing, Pokemon card unwrappings, Pokemon distributors, full south korean tv shows, K-pop bands, J-pop bands, Japanese bands and so many other people out there. Not everyone is likeable you will understand but this side of Tik Tok is not what is shown by the media at large. The element of the posting side of Tik Tok and its youth demographic is far weaponized. Yes, there are lot of young people on the app but there are also many people who aren't young on the app who post and this is their living and they can even be eldery too! Heck, the dude who plays Mr. Bean is not a teen but is on the app and has a live! People only know this lie of Tik Tok being only for its youth posting and its stupid trends and things; but in reality Tik Tok is much more deeper than that.

People overtly focus on the youths having fun on Tik Tok side of things and being jealous of people saying they need to get a " real job". You have to realize there are so many adults the same age as these other else people who basically make so much money off Tik Tok and will never be on the news because its not apart of the narrative that " the youth don't want to work". I am to say that Tik Tok is work itself.It takes tie to post and plan what to do.  It take effort and time to stay on the lives for so many hours to even make the money and interact with fans and others to provide entertainment, community or an experience. I have seen so many people over the last three months I have activately used Tik Tok and its to be said this experience is at odds with the flimsy image that people want to cast and boast Tik Tok is about. Ultimately its completely different on the inside.

There are four different groups on Tik Tok that aren't scammers and actually use it; (1) those who use it to catch the Tik Toks and watch the lives and don't ever post, (2) those that do post and watch the Tik Toks and the lives, (3) those that only post Tik Toks and are influencers and (4) those who do the lives only. These groups can be divided further but I note that those who post Tik Toks and are influencers are actually what people think of when they think of Tik Tok so I made them a group because people cognitively distinguish them as a group even if they don't use Tik Tok. It may not be a proper classification given I do not distinguish if influencers can also stream and post in these four groups but for the purpose of perception and the culture around Tik Tok-its approriate we get those that people whether correctly or not think represent all Tik Tok has to offer. This should illustrate how diverse Tik Tok is especially noting these four groups don't include scammers but include other subgroups that would be too extensive to list.

Openly there are people who center around being on the lives but post as well and thus are aiming to be influencers and many of these people over time become actual influencers with roots off Tik Tok. I am to say that the heavier element of Tik Tok is the lives and this is where people who don't become influencers immediately that people think hold value over it soley aka those represented in group 3 mentioned prior. The lives is where the real culture is as many people socialize there and many follows and following back happen there. So many connections are made between users those who view solely, those who do lives and those who are the stereotypical tik tok users denoted by 3. This is to say that everyone comes together except the scammers in the lives. Much of these lives have moderators who literally are just fans who could only be appointed by the certain Tik Tok users who do the lives. These deep connections take time to form and through people donating money and this is how follows are gained on Tik Tok. I would say Tik Tok is the easiest place to get people to view you but yet it comes at a certain cost.

I find that in studies you can find online and in news reports people's facial information is taken in by an AI and is used together with other factors of their accounts to attribute certain advertisments to those who use tik tok and as well- gather information on certain people of certain racial groups. It can be used to target people for advertisements and products and ultimately the information is used for many things unspecified by potentially the Chinese government. Yet again that information is vague but likely its China selling people's biometric information and else profiles to different companies. Its to be said that its nothing different from what Facebook is currently doing itself but with lesser tech. I mean to say this Tik Tok is such a boon of AI and technology; it knows where you are going and it knows what you are doing near your phone. I mean a person could be watching porn near their phone and next it recommends alot of saucy Tik Toks. This is the power of Tik Tok! So, to be honest Tik Tok does take advantage of people even showing their faces and even it being on your phone means they are taking information to. They know alot of things about you; you don't even know yourself really much and truly.

I will say that there is way much more to Tik Tok than meets the eye.