Anecdotally, I also see clusters of text-only posts every few weeks, even though I always either pause to read or scroll immediately through.
I definitely used to get videos with walls of text that are obviously trying to game the algorithm by getting you to read an essay to increase watch time. Once I habitually scrolled away from them I stopped getting them. That isn't even related to the claim of voices reading screenshots of tweets or reddit comments.
I absolutely believe that videos exist where there are text-to-speech readings of tweets or reddit comments and that the commenter referencing them sees a decent amount of them in their own feed. But I do not believe they represent a "decent amount" of the majority of TikTok users feeds.
But, you are right that I was talking about text posts in general rather than directly responding to the videos about reading text from reddit/twitter that this subthread was discussing though. I see those often but I don't see them currently trending.
Not for me, I get exactly zero videos like that. I always chuckle when I read someone say "Most videos on TikTok ..." since they seem totally oblivious to the fact that there isn't a single TikTok experience. You get what you get and I get what I get.
It reminds me of an older guy I know who stated in front of a bunch of young men "All of the videos on TikTok are scantily clad 13 year old girls doing dirty dances". It was second-hand cringe embarrassing.
I think baby boomers, gen-x and a decent portion of millennials still think of social media as being broadly targeted like TV stations used to be. Even YouTube doesn't come close to the insane customization of TikTok.
Somebody new to YouTube is going to think there's nothing on it besides Mr Beast, iPhone reviews and culture war nonsense, because that's what the front page shows to a signed out user. I imagine Tiktok is similar.
Well, there are exactly two options with TikTok. Either you use the app or you don't. If you don't use the app then you probably shouldn't be making definitive statements about what content is on the platform.
If you do use the app then it will quickly (I mean within less than 1 hour of use) customize itself to your preferences. There is no "tweaking". Just by interacting with the app (swiping up on videos, viewing comments, allowing videos to replay, etc.)
So if you have been on TikTok for roughly 1 hour or more then you are getting a significantly customized experience that almost no one else on the platform is going to get. That isn't true on YouTube or really any other kind of media experience that existed prior to it. That is why older internet users can't really reason about it effectively and tend to make statements that sound out-of-touch to younger users.
One can use the app for any amount of time, and make any comment they wish.
If there's a critical mass of people making the same criticisms of the app, maybe the explanation isn't "you're using it wrong".
It's like saying "There's no video game videos in my feed so why would TikTok make a feature related to gaming?"
I think there's probably a way that text can be built into the app that works alongside what's there and makes it a more interesting experience than just looking at screenshots.