Why is TikTok so popular with younger audiences?

Tiktok
Tiktok
Tiktok

I was surprised to see a statistic some time ago that showed that younger audiences prefer getting information from TikTok to Google. I couldn’t understand why.

Today I read some articles and researched for a few hours to understand why. This seems to be more a mistrust of Google and other search engines than the quality of the TikTok search results itself. One writer talked about using TikTok and the results of her searches. I had tried TikTok in the past and was disappointed and deleted it. It didn’t answer anything that I needed to know.

This wasn’t about me however but about why it is popular. I think it is because TikTok is like StumbleUpon which I liked a lot in the past. It was a search discovery tool. It may not give you exactly what you want, but its suggestions are close enough to be interesting. I think these kinds of tools don’t match exactly what you want to appeal to the entertainment and short hit of the reward of finding something unique and interesting.

It seems that social media and every company try to find what is addictive in people and nurture that. TikTok understood that formula and then people want to make it the answer for everything. Google tried to be the answer for everything and most of its projects failed or were canceled. When you try to be everything to everyone, you end up doing nothing well. Just ask Apple. As James would say, I digress. (https://chimac.net/freakin-reviews-on-youtube-has-great-advice/)

Now I am not going to tell you to avoid using TikTok. It is your choice what you do in your life. It is interesting however to consider some anti-customer things they are doing. For example, they admitted that some employees spied on journalists by tracking their location to identify them. To me, it is a bit disturbing that a foreign government like China takes advantage of our First Amendment rights to push its political agenda. If they spy on journalists they probably have spied on you as well.

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But if you don’t care if you are being spied on and manipulated that’s up to you. I do care and nothing that companies can offer is greater than respecting people’s rights and freedom. It is interesting, isn’t it? People complain about not having the freedom to do what they want, but then they willingly give up their freedom to a company like TikTok which seeks to undermine the US. Why would you help a country that thinks we are corrupt?

If you want to understand what TikTok knows and does with your information you can read an excellent article here. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jul/20/tiktoks-privacy-problem-isnt-what-you-think

Your move.