I've accidentally come across many examples of people harassing other people as a "prank", and my impression is that the harassers have been late or deficient in developing empathy.
An Airpod wouldn't even be close to being a replacement.
There is one like you describe where people act a GTA like scene while replicating animations that make no sense in real life. That’s cute and funny.
There is also a trend of people harassing unwilling bystanders. That’s shitty.
Also dangerous.
If we wanted to inform people of the "danger" tiktok poses to our country it would involve giving power to the public to see that we have domestic actors that are _nearly_ as bad...
Maybe I'm just biased because I love the NPC in real life trend as well.
Remember YouTube? Kids did stupid shit and harassed people for views. They still do.
New medium, new names, same kids doing anything for a few internet points.
The NPC in real life videos are mostly play acted people doing NPC stuff like awkwardly running in place while colliding with an obstacle, or repeating gestures stiffly. Some of them are actually really well acted and look like Skyrim or something. The closest thing to what this article describes that I’ve seen usually appear to be a chance encounter with an irate “Karen” who is making incoherent arguments and threats that are reminiscent of the threats Grand Theft Auto NPCs make if you walk into them. It’s usually over something stupid like skateboarding in their neighborhood. Never seen one where they go out and do something mean to an old person and film it.