The New Pornographers — THE BITTER SOUTHERNER

It’s striking that TikTok, on the surface, prizes individuality but what truly sustains the platform is imitation and repetition and the all-too-human desire to be just like everyone else. Despite the many charming or strange or jaw-dropping videos on TikTok, far more of the videos are fairly mundane. They receive little attention, but the creators... See more

After a while, there is a certain tedium to TikTok. The feast becomes overwhelming. Our taste buds dull. Our eyes dry. TikTok understands that once you start scrolling, it is so very hard to stop.

It becomes something of a Faustian bargain, because our online habits and behaviors are carrion for tech vultures. As we scroll, they feast

On TikTok, anything and everything can be content. For those who are willing to play that particular game, they can film and share and monetize every mundane or salacious aspect of their lives. Nothing is sacred and everything is scalable.

TikTok is creative and sprawling and often strange and anarchic, which mirrors the internet more broadly. There are few rules; the platform takes all comers. Chaos is inevitable. You can find absolutely anything; it’s incredible to witness how many different ways there are to be, how creative (or uncreative) people are, how we crave attention, hopi... See more