I’ve never really used tiktok, but with Reddit shitting the bed it’s time to expand my horizons and create a social media “mix”

So yesterday I’m watching tiktok for pretty much the first time having a real go at it, and I noticed when I’m scrolling the videos are all kinda meh, then I click back (to exit on android) and I get a “decent” one, so I hang around and watch it, then scrolling more meh, back, decent video. Is this a thing? I ended up just clicking back to game the system, if I really liked the video I would reward tiktok with a scroll, if it gives me a shit video, back again.

Am I nuts?

  • BigRedSparrow@lemmygrad.ml
    2·
    1 year ago

    You’re not crazy. It’s not really about the back button. Tiktok uses an algorithm that suggests you content that you like based on how you use your feed. It uses many different factors like the time you stay on a specific video/content, your likes, comments, how long you watch someone’s profile, and more to suggest you things that will keep you there.

    It’s quite advanced but there are some concerning factors to that because it can’t tell from right or wrong. So if you were to be browsing for something inappropriate, then yes it’ll suggest you just that.

  • Nullify9964@lemmy.ml
    1·
    1 year ago

    I’m not going to pretend I know exactly how the algorithm works but I’d imagine TikTok is designed to keep you on the platform as long as possible. So if you take an action that stops them from serving you ads they’ll tweak things to keep you in longer next time.