Tag: Tik-Tok

Tik-Tok Is Useless Since Its Sale

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Yesterday, for one brief moment, Tik-Tok was a really good source of information about about the murder of Alex Pretti at the hands of a thuggish border control agent.

But since then, it’s almost as if the owners of the service have freaked out and tweaked the algorithm. Tik-Tok is now useless. There is a growing amount of MAGA disinformation on there to the point that I don’t even want to use it any.

It is curious that for a few hours there, Tik-Tok actually was, like, good at disseminating information. My fear, of course, is the whole point of MAGA thugs owning Tik-Tok is to warp the media landscape to the point that people maybe not as clued-in will fall for MAGA disinformation as we enter the 2026 midterm elections.

This is another sign that we probably will not have free-and-fair elections ever again in my lifetime. We’re going to become a “managed democracy” like they have in Hungary and Turkey and, lulz, that’s it.

That Warning Is A Little Late…

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Sometimes, on Tik-Tok, you run across something so dumb that you just have to chuckle. Take, for instance, this Tik-Tok I was pushed today by a woman who with great authority said that Google was using its Evil AI Technology to scan all our emails.

I find this hilarious because Google has been scanning all our emails, in some way, since its advent. Maybe the AI being used has grown more advanced, but the principle is the same.

Ugh.

And, of course, this way too late freak out is going to be even bigger when Google implements its new AI-first Gmail. Then people, who have not been paying attention, are going to freak the fuck out.

Digital Telepathy Strikes Again!

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I go for walks a lot and one of the places I go walking has a lot of trees that have been felled by what appears to be beavers. I’ve found myself studying the trees, thinking about beavers a lot. (As one does.)

Well, would you believe, I got pushed a video on Tik-Tok about beavers felling trees and how they exactly do it. It was eerie. I had told no one about my thinking about beavers felling trees, and, yet, I got pushed a video on that very subject.

It makes me wonder, yet again, if Tik-Tok can somehow read our minds. I know that’s severe magical thinking, but…sometimes I wonder.

Spooky Tik-Tok Behavior Strikes Again

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

A few days ago, I suddenly though really hard about an actress telling the story of how she wore the wrong type of dress to a James Bond audition. Well, wouldn’t you know it, today I got pushed by Tik-Tok the exact video segment I had been thinking about.

Crazy, man, just crazy.

I don’t really think that Tik-Tok can read our minds, but, sometimes, it’s just so fucking spooky.

Tik-Tok Did It AGAIN (I Think?)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I go somewhere on a regular basis where I see an older woman dancing to golden oldie rock music. It kind of rattles my cage because I know in a few years, *I* will be like her and it makes me feel sad that there will come a point when I can’t rock out without looking like a fool.

So, just a moment ago, I was taken aback when Tik-Tok pushed me a video of a young man in a similar situation as what I’ve been through of late. Though, in this case the young man is bothered by his mom dancing to rock music at a stadium.

Now, of all the times Tik-Tok has seemingly “read my mind,” this is the one instance where I can see where it’s probably just co-incidence. But it was still eerie that something so specific relative to what’s been at the forefront of my mind was pushed to me.

Very strange indeed.

‘Qualia’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There are two things that I current perceive to be true:

  1. It’s Possible that Tik-Tok can read our minds
    I only even bring this up because to me, at least, this is pretty brazen — or has been. I have, in the past, repeatedly been pushed Tik-Toks that seem to reference my internal monologue. It’s all very eerie.
  2. Something is up with Spotify’s algorithmic recommendations
    This is a new development. I seem — SEEM — to be having something of a back and forth between myself and Spotify’s AI (or whatever it is.)

    Now, magical thinking would cause one to connect these two things in some way. But I’m done with magical thinking. I’m staying as strictly to what is real as possible.

    I can’t PROVE to anyone else that the two things above a real, but they are real enough to me relative to my perception of the world for me to mull What It All Means.

    Now there is a third thing:
  3. Is it possible “inception” is possible?
    This is crazy, crazy talk. But it is something to think about. The idea that actual “inception” is possible is something to give one pause for thought.

    But, as I mentioned, I’m done with magical thinking. It just had to get that off my chest.

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.