this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
27 points (96.6% liked)

Ask Lemmygrad

807 readers
78 users here now

A place to ask questions of Lemmygrad's best and brightest

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 42 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i don't like short content specially when it is chosen for you, not by you.

i prefer video essays and podcasts, because i can listen while i work and because of length it can go deep into whatever subject is about, something that is not possible with shorts

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

You can work while listening to deep topics? How are you able to concentrate on either task?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

For me, I don't tend to remember what I am listening to. It's more background noise. There might be times something interesting is said, then I'll shift my focus. I do it to have a cursory familiarity with the topic at hand, it makes it easier to refer to in the future if it's necessary since I'll already have a modicum of familiarity.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

is not possible to focus on two things, you more like juggle your attention

as the other comrade said, is more about having some background noise and occasionally picking something interesting along the way.

this doubles down for me because i live in a noisy place, i simply can't stop listening to it. dog barks, engines, constrution, music, chatting, footsteps, people sucking teeth.

these always throw me off, so to study or work i need headphones and to listen something, that is why i like podcasts, at least i learn something along the way.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I think it depends on the type of work and the type of music. When I'm drawing or doing most creative work, I just have to listen to music. The only time I have to be more specific is when I'm writing, because then I can't really concentrate on the words, such times call for calm music without words. Now where it gets frustrating is Audio editing. You simply cannot listen to music in the meantime which is SO fckn irritating fr

It's interesting how music tends to affect so many ppl differently tho O.o

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I don't have it, but I heavily dislike the format of very short videos in loop that are pre-selected for you by an algorythm in order to keep you watching video after video after video. That's not good for one's attention span.

If I have to choose my posion, I would rather have a slow and overly dramatic six hour-long video essay about EVE online (Come on Fred, give us the video already).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

lmao, we think the same. and if you don't know, i recommend the moon channel, he makes nice essays about video games.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

I don't have anything against it personally, but I know the ABSOLUTE LAST thing I need is another endless doomscroll shortform content app

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Short-form content doesn't pull me, and I have an anti against almost all social media. The only reason I use Lemmy is because it feels like a Reddit-clone that still has phpBB energy; I would never again use a corporate owned social media platform if I could help it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I feel the same way. Short-form content is impossible for me to focus on, and it becomes overwhelming. The endless data scraping, the general toxicity, the general quality degredation over time, the way feeds on all of them are designed, etc. It creates a very uneasy feeling for me.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Preaching. I literally don't even care if the places I apply to for work find it strange I don't keep it-- I won't. Even just having an account with one of those scrape-happy megacorps is too much of an opsec hazard, and FAR too much of a mental health hazard.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

People do look at you strange when you tell them you don't use social media. Obviously, I don't generally mention that I call for revolution on the Lemmygrad. It's a marvel of our age, how normal social media has become. Well, a marvel of the power of fin-tech capital. (I'm assuming the fin in fin-tech means finance but if it didn't it does now.)

We've got depressed af adults looking at depressed af kids, identifying the cause as too much unhealthy screen time but unable to see it's contributing to their own poor mental health, too. For me – sounds like it's similar for you – it's good to touch grass occasionally but this place keeps my mind healthier. But it's built different. And the company helps.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I despise it and have never used it. It seems most comrades are giving very measured responses, which I applaud them for, but I can't do the same. We have built into us some kind of system to detect what is bad for us. When we look at some mouldy fruit, we think it is off putting and would never think of eating it, because we know it would make us ill. TikTok gives me the same feeling. When I see people scrolling endlessly, evaluating a video within 2 seconds of the vapid, vacuous and hideous content, then swiping to the next thing, I just feel disgusted. It is visual opium. It is a media perfected to steal your attention and harvest it. In my opinion it is the epitome of liberal brainrot and capitalist overconsumption and should be destroyed with prejudice.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

judging by the way you wrote, you had this discussion before and people answers where brimming with sinophobia and orientalism.

thankfully such thing is not present nor is tolerated in this instance.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Actually I haven't really spoken about this to anyone, but my disdain for such a platform as TikTok also applies to other similar platforms like Instagram, YouTube shorts etc. Regardless of who owns them they are the same and should be exterminated

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah, there is plenty of detailed analysis that could be had for TikTok, but for me it just triggers a primal feeling of unease.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

As a true hot blooded US patriot I don't use anything that the news has told me might be connected to China in case they turn me into a bimbofied brainwashed communist who hates God and eats soy for every meal with their advanced CCPification Hypno

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I don't necessarily hate TikTok.

It depends on how you interact with it. My algorithm is completely curated to Palestinian coverage and educational things with the occasional meme. That is what the internet is for, in my mind.

I just am not a fan of underage soft-core, terrible right wing takes and the stupidity that comes with it. Idk

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

My wife is into Tiktok; even stuff I should like has an aggressively obnoxious shortened pacing and an over-emphasis on parasocial reaction faces.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I don't have any principled opposition to it, I have seen people make solid educational content on there and I believe you can absolutely get something worthwhile out of it.

It's just not for me. I am not that keen on shorter form content, and I much prefer written content to video content to begin with. I am already disgruntled over everything needing to be a youtube video when a short text guide/overview would suffice.

Might just be me being an old man yelling at clouds, I don't "get" most of the social media platforms these days. Things like Instagram make honestly even less sense to me than TikTok.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

For me, it started out as principle, but I kept on disliking it till this day and age.

The "principle" reason is simple; I think most will be able to remember how some years prior TikTok was like the cringiest thing to exist. Everyone was hating on it, including me. Then suddenly at some point everybody seemed to have started using it. So many ppl who hated on it, now happily scrolling their ForYou page. Back then I simply didn't wanna backtrack on what I said and thought, as I was really of the impression that my criticism was justified.

My criticism back then wasn't unjustified, I'd say. I saw what TikTok was like; the endless scrolling and whatnot and decided I disliked that. There were many videos talking abt how negatively it impacts ones attention span as well.

No idea if the claims abt the destruction of our attention span are actually true, but tbh, I think I simply feel the best on Lemmy. I had to reinstall Instagram the other day, so that I could post my photography somewhere, and I hate it to bits. Today still, TikTok enjoys the status of 'a tiny bit worse than Insta" in my brain. It's prolly on the same level to me as Fortnite. Simply cringy.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I don't hate it. I just don't use it or other social media because they're toxic in format and effect. I think things like this result in anti-social behavior and problems for society and I think they'll be abolished under socialism. Of course I'm against banning it right now as I don't think it's any more harmful than Facebook/Instagram and all calls to do so come from Facebook shills and anti-China racists and hawks.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don't see an inherent problem with the core premise of tiktok. It's a technological leap in our digestion of media and that has led to both positive and negative changes in our culture.

Positive: It has further democratized the internet in ways and lowered the barrier of entry for working class people seeking an audience for their trades, the expression of their talents, building community through niches and eccentricities, organizing protests and information.

As far as the negatives go, I think we're all aware of the annoying and toxic things that short-form algorithm chasing and social media in general has done to our culture.

Ultimately, it's a tool that has provided a new terrain for class struggle. Theatre, novels, film, television, etc. Every communicative advance in our history has altered how we've related to each other, for better and worse. Eventually another content medium may come along that builds on the positive attributes and minimizes the toxic ones.

P.S. -- There are some great communist tiktokers that make accessible and entertaining educational videos.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

It exists, I don't have anything against it but am annoyed at it for two things; 1. Endless short-form content is being shat out to ya at like, 50 frames per second, I sometimes find short-form content entertaining, but like, can you ease it a bit? and 2. The amount of sinophobic anti-China garbage it gets associated with, thanks to TikTok being originally from China as Douyin.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I'm indifferent towards Tiktok

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I installed it and liked it for a couple of days but then it popped up notifications after I'd turned them off. That's an instant uninstall. Same with Instagram.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can just turn off notifactions

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

I thought I'd done that.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I don't use tiktok really. Since I have a secondhand iphone i just use the "search" widget to directly take me to videos of monkeys, which zookeepers post directly, not exotic pets etc fuck that

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From a technical and user perspective I feel it's an impressively garbage and useless video hosting website, like a parody of modern computer engineering. And then there is basically zero worthwhile or interesting content on there, although I think some of their parody videos are kinda funny: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ObuZbByZ-3g, https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PWOYUeGZrkI

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

Link 1:

Link 2:

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I consider TikTok to be something take every aspect of youtube, and make it more degenerate and more profitable. And don't get me wrong, kudos should be given to the Chinese for developing it and it is a necessary step for China to challenge Western hegemony. But it is more addicting and quite frankly, I consider it things such as to that to be a contributor to the loneliness epidemic and in the general reduction in attention span of people.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I kinda like it. Idk how to feel about it

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I generally dislike short form video and vastly prefer to curate my own feeds. It's as simple as that for me. I'll shit on a lot of tiktok users in joking but tbh I'm honestly pretty indifferent about the platform itself outside of some qualms with it's moderation (which pretty much every major social media struggles with) and personally disliking the way it operates.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Tiktok has ten times worse the rancid hot takes than twitter.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

It is a cursed chalice from which one cannot drink without simultaneously drowning in it

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I use TikTok but try to limit how much time I spend on it. It's way to easy to spend a long time on Tiktok and I don't want to waste my time like that. Most of the stuff on TikTok is not that good or is something I can live without. There's some good TikTok accounts, but some of them also upload on YouTube. As long as you use TikTok in moderation, it's okay. I have timers on my phone for my most used apps, including TikTok.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

it's way too addicting and i've wasted lots of free time scrolling through tiktok so i had to uninstall. i already lose a lot of time to just trying to stay focused on whatever task i'm doing and don't need an extra thing that can derail that. i also don't use most social media sites anymore so it's not just tiktok.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same. Uninstalling it after wasting countless hours over the first week I tried it, was incredibly liberating.

Clicking unsubscribe and leaving tiktok, twitter, and reddit has done wonders for my mental health.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I wouldn't say I hate it. More that I'm almost entirely oblivious as to what it is. I heard it helps the CPC, which does make it attractive, I'll admit. But I'm too resistant to hyped new social media. I don't use Facebook, Insta, Twitter, etc, either. That is due to hatred. Born of experience.