TikTok and the Fall of the Social-Media Giants

Now, the question is whether Instagram should replace their default view with a “full screen video experience” that would basically complete their transition into a wholesale TikTok clone.

TikTok’s algorithm treats each video more or less independently to assess its viral potential, caring relatively little about how many followers the creator has. This would be a trivial algorithm change for its competitors. What’s stopping them? Only the fact that their top creators, who collectively determine the platform’s fate, would rebel,

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In Lanier’s telling, this digital landscape shifted once the success of Google’s ad program revealed that you could make a lot of money on user-generated creative output, which led to the rise of social-media companies such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Initially, these companies emphasized their simple, elegant-looking interfaces and their ... See more

On Twitter we get breaking news; on Instagram we see our friends and go shopping; on Facebook we (not me personally) join groups and share memes. On TikTok we are simply entertained. This is not to discount it as a very real force for politics, activism, and the business of culture, or a vehicle to create content and join in conversations. But for ... See more