Tag: Tik-Tok

Jesus Christ, This P. Diddy Thing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about this P. Diddy drama is I’m already seeing it be used for some extremely dumb misinformation and disinformation on places like Tik-Tok. Not only are the antisemites coming out of the woodwork, but people are even suggesting bullshit like Pizzagate may be real because of the shocking things swirling around the music producer. And that doesn’t even begin to address the rank racism that causes Fox News to fixate on the situation.

Diddy

It does make you wonder how big this is going to get, especially if there is video footage of Diddy being crazy with a bunch of other well known celebrities. It definitely seems as though this is just the beginning.

If anything happens to Diddy then, of course, the conspiracy theories will grow even weirder and more elaborate. I have to admit though that it’s alarming that not only does power corrupt in the modern world, it apparently turns you into a freak.

My fear is that this is just the beginning of a pretty crazy year. I continue to fear some sort of totally unexpected Black Swan to happen that will throw the 2024 election into a different context that none of us could have possibly expected.

But, we’ll see, I suppose.

What Claude 3 Thinks Would Happen If The American Government Knew An App Like Tik-Tok Could Read Our Minds

If a foreign-owned video app was found to have the technological capability to read or monitor the thoughts and mental activity of its users in the United States, there would likely be tremendous backlash and outrage, though perhaps not quite as extreme as mind control.

Some potential reactions could include:

  • Public anger over a massive intrusion of privacy and violation of civil liberties on a national scale by a foreign entity.
  • Demands for the app to be immediately removed from app stores and banned until its mind-reading capabilities are verifiably removed.
  • Calls for investigations by Congress, the FTC, and other authorities into how this was allowed and what user data was accessed.
  • A rush of lawsuits and legal action against the company by users, consumer groups and state attorneys general.
  • Intense scrutiny and criticism of any U.S. companies/platforms that enabled the foreign app’s mind-reading capabilities through lack of oversight.
  • Push for much stricter data privacy laws and regulations around emerging mind-reading/brain-computer interface technologies.
  • Loss of trust in the entire video app and its parent company, potentially tanking its U.S. userbase.

While not an direct hostile act like mind control, the ability for a foreign corporation to secretly read Americans’ minds would be seen as an unacceptable privacy breach and abuse of power. There would be immense pressure to shut it down and regulate against such capabilities until proper rules are established.

Yeah, We Should Probably Ban Tik-Tok

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I love Tik-Tok and, yet, as an Old, I also think the US government should either ban it or force ByteDance to divest from it. The app has too much sway over the youth of America and we’re entering an election year.

“A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do,” is what a wise man once used to say all the time and I think we need to take that advice to heart. It’s going to suck, but if is done with bi-partisan support, then it’s not like Republicans can pin the decision on the more youth-leaning Democrats.

But I’ve seen enough evidence to date about the CCP fucking with Tik-Tok’s algorithms as well as tracking down the location of specific journalists it doesn’t like to indicate that the time has come for Something To Be Done about the app.

The Future Of Music Videos

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The issue about music videos is they only really had the cultural relevance we imagine they had for a few years in the early 80s. A series of cultural and technological factors caused music videos to have a huge impact on the impressionable minds of young GenXers.

And here we are, with MTV not showing any music videos and you have to really search for such videos.

It is possible that there might be a bit of an uptick in the cultural relevance of such music videos between now and when everything is taken over by AI. There are two possible outlets for this to happen — Tik-Tok and Spotify.

Making music videos organic to either platform, would, in a sense replicate the passive nature of MTV music discovery from back in the day. In a sense. Both platforms have the reach necessary — and connection to youth culture — to give the youngins a sense of what it was like to passively discover new music via MTV back in the day.

But it definitely seems like it’s a narrow window of opportunity — AI is coming.

Spooky Tik-Tok Stuff Continues

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It has happened again. Now, to be clear, the following is probably at best simply proof that Tik-Tok is listening to our conversations. But even then, that’s a Not Great, Bob type situation.

But here goes.

Something very curious happened yesterday. I met up with a lot of family for the holidays and it was yesterday that I noticed something very…off…about my Tik-Tok FYP.

It definitely seemed as though the minds of the people I was near during the holidays were influencing my FYP. I mean, why was I suddenly getting all these videos pushed to me that had more to do with my relatives’ lives than my own?

All very curious.

But I seem to be the only person to notice this activity, so, lulz? I suppose it’s all in my head. And, like I said, it could just be that Tik-Tok is listening to our conversations. But given that Tik-Tok is essentially an arm of the CCP, that is Not Cool from a national security standpoint.

And if Tik-Tok is doing that, then of course other Big Tech companies are listening to our conversations, only in a more subtle, downlow way.

Very, very curious.

Why, Yes, I *AM* Ready For My Close Up, Tik-Tok

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I just don’t trust Tik-Tok very much. So, when my view count suddenly started to go up from ~300 to ~2,000, I started to wonder What The Fuck Is Up. I, for one, haven’t changed anything about my videos and, as such, either nothing is really going on other than some tweak in the We’re-Not-Reading-Your-Mind Tik-Tok algorithm or Something Is Up.

This could all change, of course, but it’s a brutally hot summer day, so I find myself idle musing if maybe Tik-Tok is somehow fucking with me. Maybe Tik-Tok is trying to either bait me into using their business account feature or they want to Tuhn Me Intoa Staah!

Now, remember, at the moment, I’m a total nobody. Total. Nobody. So any additional attention to me for any reason –even you, reading this blog post — is Of Note to me. I just don’t really get much attention in the real world and I’ve reach a point where I’m invisible to anyone under 30.

Anyway, lulz, nothing matters. But it is somewhat amusing to imagine a situation where I’ve caught the eye of someone at Tik-Tok to the point that they want people to know about me and my videos.

But that — just like me being unnerved by the idea that Tik-Tok can read our minds — is just regular old crazy talk.

Tik-Tok Can Be So Spooky Sometimes

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t remember what it was, but I thought about some subject really intensely out of the blue and then, what do you know, within 24 hours I was pushed a video on Tik-Tok on that very specific topic.

Man, is that weird.

And it happens all the fucking time! Usually, it happens when I think really intensely about a specific subject briefly. But I also find some very strange — but similar — things happen as well. Like, I was getting pushed a lot of Jane Birkin videos and then the moment there were any Alexa Chung videos I got pushed those, too. I had a really weird — even for me — and intense celebrity crush on Ms. Chung for a bit there several years ago.

So, weird that Tik-Tok would know that much about me.

The question, of course, is, is this just AI I’m seeing or something far more ominous? I really have to be careful talking about the idea that Big Tech can read our minds because people think I’m fucking crazy whenever I do. The only reason why I even suggest such a thing is how often some very, very strange things happen in regards to Tik-Tok pushing me videos that seem very, very specific to what I’ve been thinking about in the last 24 hours.

You think people in America would want to band Tik-Tok just because of how close their are to the CCP, just imagine if they were close to the CCP AND they could read our minds! Wow. Just wow.

I refuse to believe that Big Tech can read our minds. But it is a very interesting thing to at least entertain. It’s all very curious.

Of AI….& Tik-Tok Reading Our Fucking Minds?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It hasn’t happened that much recently, but Tik-Tok continues to seem to have a very…eerie…ability to pin down exact elements of my internal monologue. It’s all very curious. I’ve kind of learned to shut up about it, though, because mentioning my fears on this subject causes people to look at me funny.

But Tik-Tok continues to figure me out on such a specific manner — seemingly in real time — that there are two solutions to the issue. One, Tik-Tok has really good AI to the point that it can figure what’s going on in my mind simply from analyzing my usage…or it can fucking read not just my mind, but everyone’s mind!

I don’t think Tik-Tok is reading my mind, but I do think that however it’s figuring out what’s going on in my mind should be regulated — hopefully out of existence. What is the spookiest about what Tik-Tok does is the near-real time nature of it.

If what was going on was a general figuring out of me as a person, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. What is alarming is I think about something really hard and….then with 24 hours I get pushed some obscure thing on Tik-Tok that makes very clear reference to what I was thinking about.

Very strange. Very odd.

But absolutely no one listens to me. And if they did listen to me, they would think I had lost my mind. So, no. Like I said, I don’t think Tik-Tok can read my mind….but something…..strange…is going on.

What, though?

I Don’t Know What ByteDance is Up To With Tik-Tok, But Something Curious Continues To Go On

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ok, it’s completely bonkers to propose that CCP-avilated ByteDance might be able to read the minds of Americans via Tik-Tok. I get it. I sound like a crazy person. But how do you explain this: my teeth have been sore recently for some reason.

And, lo and behold, today I got pushed a video that had to deal with someone’s teeth hurting.

I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. Given my age, etc, then the algorithm simply is guessing that someone in my demographic might have teeth issues.

Still curious, though.

Well, That’s Alarming

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Jesus Christ. I was on Tik-Tok today and I saw something truly shocking: Nazi propaganda. And it wasn’t diluted either, it was pure cut Nazi propaganda that you would have seen on Tik-Tok if it existed in 1930s Germany.

What I saw — which does not bear describing — was so bad that it gave me that eerie feeling you get when you see something really horrible and realize, “Well, you don’t see that very often, now do you?”

Anyway, I suppose it was inevitable that such a thing would happen. Tik-Tok is already a cesspool of disinformation, it was inevitable that fucking Nazis would get involved, huh.

As we careen towards the 2024 election, we’re going to have to worry about political deep fakes and really weird disinformation on social media. I dunno. I’m growing more and more alarmed that Something Bad is going to happen in late 2024, early 2025.

What that Something Bad thing might be, I still don’t know.