I’ve reached that critical period in middle age where I don’t sign up for new social media platforms because I don’t “get” them. My limited understanding is that TikTok is for short videos and there’s a lot of dancing, for some reason. Is it the platform itself that’s addictive, or the content is just that good?

It's more about providing shots of dopamine without requiring the ability to pay attention for longer than 30 seconds, combined with a decent ranking algorithm. If you are not used to consuming entertainment in bite-sized pieces then you wont enjoy it, regardless of how old you are. It's just that the proportion of people who expect entertainment to consist of half minute segments is much higher among the young than the old, and if you do fall into that group, you will really struggle being able to handle even a 15 minute youtube video, let alone a 40 minute broadcast show or a 3 hour play. In that case, you don't have many good video consumption options besides TikTok, so you will spend a lot of time there, even though I don't think it's addictive.

What I really wonder about is the future of sports -- what will they do to make, say, baseball appealing to people with those types of attention spans. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some big upheavals in the sports world over the next two decades.

I was also surprised that you are worried about sports - that is one of the last things I would worry about.

I worry that our reward systems are being hijacked. We are more and more trained to seek short dopamine bursts.

The problem is that this is short term satisfaction that creates chronic boredom in the long run. Just notice how you feel after two hours of watching "funny" videos or whatever is your poison. Don't you feel like it's not funny anymore but you keep watching anyway just to escape the creeping sense of emptiness?

Lately, I keep thinking about what Erich Fromm said about people becoming robots, although he meant it in a different context: "But given man's nature, robots cannot live and remain sane, they become 'Golems', they will destroy their world and themselves because they cannot stand any longer the boredom of a meaningless life."

Sports are the last worry in a society where 30 seconds attention spans are endemic.

TikTok quickly adapts to show you videos that you're interested in. There's all sorts of content on TikTok. There's a lot of dancing videos in the same way that there are a lot of dancing videos on YouTube.

TikTok seems like a next generation YouTube though. What it adds, in addition to an easy and addictive way to watch, is a remix culture empowered by the ease of creating new videos. Dancing is a fine example. When someone creates a new dance other TikTokers try it out or put their own twist on it.

I think highly of TikTok. It's creative. The algorithm powering the feed is compelling. I personally uninstalled it because I'd get caught up using it and spend more time than I wanted on the app - but it's doing a lot right.

> TikTok quickly adapts to show you videos that you're interested in.

I've read this and they must have some really brilliant people working there because they are able to confidently stream you whatever is next that keeps you hooked. There's no home page for you to pick and choose. You're just getting one dopamine hit to the brain right after the other.

> TikTok seems like a next generation YouTube though.

YouTube seems to incentivize longer content which seems to be the wrong thing to do. I can watch a short TikTok video and feel that I actually learned something without the time commitment.

the dancing might be how zoomers used it but nowadays there are all kinds of categories. fishing, cars, home improvement, gardening, career help, ask me anything (lawyers, therapists, etc)

How does that work in short form?

I was curious too so I checked YouTube for "gardening TikTok" and people have made compilations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es9BJpvvFQ0

Same exact story for me. One taste was all needed to know that I dare not taste again.

I had exactly the same experience. Tiktok is one of the most addictive products/substances I've experienced and I found it genuinely frightening. I spent about 2 hours on the app without realizing it one day, and deleted the app basically as soon as I snapped out of my reverie.

I don't know if the algorithm is so good or if it's because the app actively engages your brain without you realizing it. You're constantly thinking about whether you like the current video or not that you don't see the time go. If instead you were forced to make a conscious decision of what to watch before watching the video, it would be much easier to stop watching by just consciously making a decision to not watch the next thing.

Same. I reinstall it in short bursts every couple of months but otherwise the same music-different videos aspect of it really sucks me in in the same way a hook of a song that I really like does. Hats off to the magically addictive combination the authors of the platform have come up with, it’s a real achievement.

What gave you that feeling exactly do you think?

Not OP, but had the same experience

For me I think it's two factors:

1) Quick out if you don't like it. Load the next thing is really quick and easy to do. Just flick up and boom it's the next thing. Right now there are no ads or interruptions. It's really easy to move on from something you don't like.

2) The algorithm is really good. I don't know enough about it, but it consistently shows me stuff I want to see. I can't explain it more than that.

I also don't feel like it boxes me in the same way Youtube does. Youtube shows me nearly the same thing I have already seen and liked. Tiktok pulls up a good variety (sometimes from creators with single digit followers) that I am interested in.

Even though I use it sometimes, I'm not a fan of social media in general, but I would describe TikTok as the crack cocaine of social media platforms. Once I started seeing those short videos half an hour would go by in an instant. I don't know how they made the video selection algorithm so good, but after a while of using it, it mostly shows videos where it can be almost certain you will watch at least part of it.

I don't know if the algorithm is so good or if it's because the app actively engages your brain without you realizing it. You're constantly thinking about whether you like the current video or not that you don't see the time go. If instead you were forced to make a conscious decision of what to watch before watching the video, it would be much easier to stop watching by just consciously making a decision to not watch the next thing.

I think TikTok’s videos are just long enough to provide a quick dopamine hit over and over again, but too short to deliver any real substance.

You become like the lab rat hitting the lever over and over again to get a pleasure spike from the electrode wired to its brain.

I’ve found that my attention span and willpower have been decimated in the last few years. I can barely make it through a few pages of a book without reaching for my phone. I’m not sure if the (over)stimulation caused by apps like TikTok are the cause, but it seems plausible.

> You become like the lab rat hitting the lever over and over again to get a pleasure spike from the electrode wired to its brain.

Incidentally, this is what HN upvotes on my comments are for me. I tried to abandon the use of smartphones entirely, but HN is the one addiction that I can't seem to kick. Even YouTube was easier to kick, and that one wasted a lot more of my time.

Upvoted. Enjoy.

I just reinstalled it today. This is one of the few social media apps where I have to snap myself out of it to realize that I've spent too much time on it. I don't know if it's the vertical auto-scroll of content but stuff like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram give you some positive space between elements to give you some kind of pause to realize, "oh I've been scrolling endlessly, time to quit". Like others have mentioned, their algorithms are really good.

TikTok is to YouTube what Twitter is to blog posts.