You're tearing me apart!

I was fine with memes over the past few years ... sure they are a quick dopamine hit that make you laugh or think

But now when my friends send me tiktok videos ... especially when someone has been watching these video streams for hours or days ... they start sending out the most random, inane, mindless content ... it's the kind of material that keep a monkey occupied.

it's the kind of material that keep a monkey occupied.
I think that's kind of the point. There was an article a while back that said the CCP/Bytedance intentionally serve up braindead content to everywhere outside China, while promoting educational and uplifting content at home.
- I have one 50 year old friend with very little tech know how and his kids set him up with a good smartphone. I saw his family about a year ago and his kids noted that their dad often sits up until about 2 or 3 in the morning at the kitchen table just scrolling through tiktok videos. He sent them to me about once a day until I had to block him and tell him directly to stop sending me this stuff. He's since become 'aware' of his addiction and stops sending out videos as often as he did before. He still scrolls through thousands and thousands of videos a day.
  It would all be funny if it wasn't so frightening at the same time.
- I've had no trouble curating my feed to mostly professionals, psychologists and pet behaviorists. Occasional cute animal videos
- that sounds way too bizarre to believe without seeing a source. and i know there's gonna be people replying saying it's not that bizarre, because China, but really....?
- I want to see a sampling of this "educational and uplifting" content.
- Just don't forget Blackrock owns a very sizable portion of Bytedance. Just saying.
- That’s such a gross misunderstanding of the separation between TikTok and China that it’s very possible purposeful misinformation.
  China has no control whatsoever over TikTok, and in fact, there are US intelligence officers on the board for the American company. If anyone is “intentionally serving up braindead content…” it’s the US company, who is under strict control and observation by US intelligence agencies.
it’s the kind of material that keep a monkey occupied.
And that's what Ten Forward is for!

Oh shit!

This post actually made me look for a solution and I found one!
Solution to opening tiktoks without using tiktok app or site, not how to stop ur friends sending u garbage.

It made me think... mpv player can play basically any link you throw at it (thanks to yt-dlp), and we also have mpv on Android, so why can't we do it there as well. And sure enough, I found this https://github.com/mpv-android/mpv-android/pull/58, someone baked yt-dlp in mpv for Android, making it possible to open link in mpv (share >> play in mpv)

It works for instagram and all other shit.

Can't wait to try this out. Thanks for sharing.
I have just moved to mpv from mx player due to this comment. Thanks!
Well that's pretty cool
If you are sending the links through discord/chat with embed add vx in front of tiktok and it becomes playable in discord itself. (https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8b81Gu1/ -> https://www.vxtiktok.com/t/ZT8b81Gu1/)
In a removed move, a normal tiktok link will have a play button on the icon like it should play, but can't. This one actually will.
So do we need to download something from your link to make that work? Or is it already part of MPV?
- Gotta download the APK from the link
While this is useful, it could be even better! If the AndroidManifest.xml also contained support for Facebook, TikTok and Instagram links it could be set to directly open them instead needing to share it to mpv.

I felt this way with instagram. My phone can barely handle the web app and you can't even replay the video without an account. Truly garbage UX

Im pretty sure that meta purposefully makes the mobile websites for all their products as shit as possible to get people to use the real apps instead
- That's what literally all social media sites do. It is far more profitable for people to be using your app than your mobile website. Apps make it much easier to harvest data and corral the user into the exact experience you want them to have (ads, suggestions, etc).
  I know not many people here are going back to Reddit but just for a second, open your mobile browser, disable the add-ons if it's firefox, and go look at Reddit currently. Within the last few weeks they have absolutely massacred it. Like, truly, it is astoundingly bad now. The original mobile redesign of the site was already terrible, but this new-new-mobile reddit is so painfully bad that the only conceivable reason for its existence is to get people to give up and use the app.
- That's why I use desktop mode on most websites
- I refuse to install their app(Facebook) phone on my phone. They have basically broken the mobile site once again, so I've just stopped using it. Much easier.
I'm pissed when ppl send me links for it and they don't play in mobile firefox and I'm forced to open chrome.
Wait until you are on a clever chinaphone OS that unloads the previous app while you play this.

I just shared this with my wife, since she has started sharing TikTok lately.

Sorry to hear your marriage is on the rocks mate. Hopefully it's just a phase.
https://giphy.com/gifs/moodman-Rh4vxHtcmVyHUyugXP
- She sent this as a reply:
  It's too late for me. Save yourselves!
Mine's been doing it too even though she knows how much I absolutely despise tiktok... There's a reason I don't have that app... Lol
And the fucking fake voices... Ugh.... Such shit.
Like, usually I use my phone with the volume completely off and I don't even want to turn it on for most of the videos I see on here or wherever but it seems like for all this tiktok garbage you need sound to even determine why the hell someone shared it with you.

PSA: If it's links on Discord, you can prefix the link with vx to make it natively embed so you don't have to click through (e.g. vxtiktok.com). This also works with twitter links (vxtwitter.com). People out there hosting these domains doing the lord's work

For Instagram you can usually do ddinstagram but it’s a bit inconsistent. I found it helps to remove the id at the end of the link.
Plot twist: the people hosting those are datamining the shit out of people

This but it's instagram

It's both. So annoying when the first bit is muted and you can't replay.
My wife created an Instagram account in my phone so she can send me videos.

I fucking abhor TikTok. Anybody who installs that app is a danger to themselves and a traitor to mankind. Disgusting fucking thing, it pisses me off.

The thing about it that irks me the most is that it's not even for any valuable means. It's just a slightly different FaceBook or YouTube Shorts platform! You're selling us all out for fucking video clips?!

My thoughts exactly.
you're angry
I dunno man, my TikTok algorithm is about the wokest, most informative news feed amongst them all.
Sometimes they try something new, and I have to train the algorithm a little again, but nothing too annoying.
- The problem isn't largely the manipulation of information you perceive through the app, although they do try their hardest.
  The problem is the app. People are putting that shit on smartphones and walking around with it. It's so bloated with spyware that the spyware outweighs the install data needed to run the app itself. I don't care if they've got a headquarters in the USA or wherever else, at the end of the day I truly believe that the information being stolen is ending up in their Chinese HQ which is a fucking military operation of a hostile dictatorship.
  It reads and transmits your message history, your GPS location, your photo library, depending on your model it's probably recording sounds most of the time. They have your name, your address, the layout of your home, where you work, where you like to eat, which bank you use, every personal conversation you've had for months: you're fucked if a global conflict ever starts. The other world powers will be completely crippled by a bunch of complacent fucking nitwits who chose Vines over their soul. Great job, assholes!
lol
What is it about short vertical video that makes people froth insanely at the mouth? Don't "china" me on it, people whine over youtube shorts, instagram reels, they poopoo on snapchat, loathed twitter stories, and thought vine was a stupid idea. It feels like an ancient redditor thing, but I was in the 11 year club too and it's just a different type of format for media, media which can be used in many different ways, as always. Like how internet video generally is different to TV.
- it's addictive, and hard to pack helpful good information into a video that short, and so it just ends up being an infinite stream of completely pointless content. it cannot be good for young children to be swiping through endless shortform content all day, either.
  honestly, i've mostly stopped using reddit, and it was kinda shocking switching to lemmy, where i can consume all of the content i am interested in that was posted today, and theres just, no more. it is certainly a healthier way of using social media though.
- It's not about vertical video. It's not even about China.
  It's about the obscene amount of tracking that TikTok does. It makes Instrgram's privacy violations look tame. It collects data on basically anything you can think of, and then uses it to show you exactly what you want, making it more addictive than most drugs while simultaneously having all of your data sold off.
- The fact that it's vertical video is bad enough on its own.
  The fact that it's short means you can't actually do anything meaningful with it. Can't meaningfully set up a scenario to tell a good joke. Can't explain the context behind the educational fact you're sharing. Can't develop characters in a story. It can never be anything more than basic spectacle.
  But the worst bit is the fact that it's pure algorithm. YouTube at least shows you a screen of 10+ videos for you to choose from. Or you can go to your subscriptions page and see videos from people you've specifically said you want to watch. Or use search and find videos on a specific topic (though recently YouTube has made changes that make this significantly worse than it used to be). TikTok is "watch the video we want you to watch, or skip to the next video we want you to watch" on repeat. It's incredibly patronising, and far less valuable as a user.
- Just use YT Shorts if you love the videos format, don't install an app from a military op in the world's largest dictatorship.
  You're going to sit there and say "Don't china me on it" when that's literally the problem. You're willfully ignorant of the actual problem with it. Fuck you!
Traitor to mankind? Don't you think you're being just a little bit dramatic?
- I'm operating under the assumption that the Chinese Dictatorship by their very nature are acting against their own interests, that they could be happier in a functioning democracy with more equality.
  Definitely a traitor to everyone else on earth, though. It would be akin to being a proponent of Stalin, Putin, Mao Zedong, the generals or the emperor of the Dai Nippon Empire, etc. History will be on my side with this one.

I just ignore them because the videos are a mess of graphics and popups outside the app. It has literally made some videos unwatchable for me as they kept getting interrupted and breaking.

It's the worst mobile website I've ever seen, which is impressive considering Facebook and Reddit have been intentionally breaking their mobile websites for years now.

I just don't respond but she's not getting the hint.

Lol people don't know their friends are platform snobs 😅
- Platform purist ty
- I've told them repeatedly though? If they're not aware at this point it's on them.

As always I like promoting open source frontends for these pages. For tiktok I use proxytok. For changing any tiktok link to one of these instances use the libredirect extension for firefox, it also works in mobile

Have you heard about our lords and saviors the alternative frontends?

Do memes stop being memes when they're on tiktok?

Once they hit TikTok, they're purely Chinese spyware.
- Facebook is just American spyware. The Chinese gov can't exactly send the feds to my house. You better bet the US gov can though!
- And that's different than American spyware in several important ways, such as...
  Such as...
  Well shit.
- What sort of spyware do they employ?
- Eh, I used to think this too, but TikTok isn't closely associated with chinese companies, any more than TakeTwo or anything made in Shenzhen.
  I still abhor it for what it is though, alongside YTShorts.

i shall retaliate with fediverse links

Suddenly glad all of my friends are old people like me.

old people like me
The person who sends me far more TikTok videos than anyone else is my boomer dad.

This is why I wrote a Telegram bot that uses yt-dlp to convert videos and send them directly to people. My friend group all use different socials, Facebook, tiktok, Twitter, Lemmy, etc., and the bot will take the link, download the video, then send it back to the person, and then they can forward it to whatever chats they want.

It's been pretty fucking handy. That is, if your friends use Telegram.

Brian is that you?
Are you any good at Japanese yet?
- Indeed.
  I thought I was getting okay at the basics, but actually visiting Japan taught me that I definitely was not. But I'm starting classes later this year, hope to become fluent eventually.

Why don't they just actually send the video file?

Those apps purposely don't make it trivial to download the files do they? You probably could but someone who swipes Tiktok all day can not.
- Lots of tiktoks can be downloaded easily, but still, they can be large, why send those around when you can just send a link

Ugh… I can feel this in my bones.

I'll usually tell him that the sound isn't working when I open it in the browser and I'm not downloading the app. But he keeps... on... trying...

Facebook videos for me

Copy link, paste into browser incognito

Share -> Save Video

This is my wife in a nutshell after Reddit died.

I've certainly been trying to get people into the fediverse and off the corporate side of things but yeah, I'm currently sitting at 0 conversions. It's made for some fun conversations though.

It feels like we've reached a critical mass to maintain, which was important, but now it's just a matter of getting the word out.
- We've got the culture and to put it simply a place to go to. The barrier for new entry is just that we are all, put simply, nerds with our communities focused around that. The fediverse's main problem overall is honestly just that the majority of the population are corporatists whether they know it or not.

Tiktok sucks so hard, but then occasionally I find a minor nugget of wisdom or a piece of information so helpful that it makes me keep the app. Just the other day, some said he applies antiperspirant to his feet in order to keep them warm, because then they'll sweat less, and will get less cold in the socks. I didn't even really know that was a problem I was really having, but now, I will never have cold feet again. There's also always eelfeel, so I'm alright with it as a whole.

More broadly I do hate how kind of walled off the app is. I try to share videos on snapchat, oof, snapchat cuts it off so it's only the first five seconds of a video. Best to send the link, but then, if you don't have tiktok downloaded, it takes you either to the app store, or it hits you with the shitty web browser. Maybe fine for seeing a single tiktok, on mobile, but it's pretty bad on desktop since it's not formatted for it, and overall it, just is kind of ass to deal with, especially on repeat. Hate the modern internet.

Edit: Sorry, nvm, I guess I didn't understand that we were fearmongering about the evil chinese technology brainwashing our youths with their wiles in this comments section.

Putting antiperspirant on your feet sounds deeply unnatural, chaotic and satanic. It's the kind of thing that will result in a sock-related early death.
- Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. I myself am intrigued!
At least patched with ReVanced or something similar.
Sorry, nvm, I guess I didn't understand that we were fearmongering about the evil chinese technology brainwashing our youths with their wiles in this comments section.
Did something about Lemmy make you think we avoid the truth here?
- This shit is Vine. We had this same social media platform in 2013, basically. Everyone's just freaking out about it now because it's owned by china, and everyone's been made to worry about threats to national security, even though we can all kind of agree that the american government also sucks and is heinous. It's giving me some "Only I can bully my little brother!" kinds of vibes. It's like the same shit as when europeans get brought up, at any point, anywhere, and then americans start making fun of british people having bad teeth and knife crime and stuff, even though they have basically all of that but worse. Nobody's a nationalist until another country gets brought up, and then suddenly everyone's the most patriotic proud to be an american motherfucker. It's cringe. It reminds me of when we started calling them "freedom fries".

What if there were a service to convert ticktock videos into Lemmy posts? Would that be a good thing?

No, I don't want to see that brainwashing garbage. It's curated to wreck the brains and society of Western democracies.
Everyone should have heard about this by now, but China's version of TikTok is vastly different than ours. It is limited to mostly educational content and has built-in screen time limits. They know what is bad about our version of it, and it's on purpose.
- I'm not in TikTok or anything but isn't that something China would of course do? Like they are trying to push their app to a country that loves FREEDOM. Why would they limit content based on their controls in place in their country?
- I'm not asking if any platform is better than Lemmy.
  I'm asking if it would be good to facilitate the ability to post the user generated content from a terrible platform to Lemmy.
- You are well beyond reefer madness levels of fear and paranoia.

Waaaaaaah waaaaah it's fine. Tiktok isn't gonna kill you.

maybe not, but why risk it?

Meh, I use tiktok, and that's fine. You'll use lemmy and get the content a week later after it's been in reels for a bit.

Insert family guy you think you're better than me meme.

I'm good having my data stolen by one country, don't need to involve a second lol
- Oh no, they see I'm watching Gaffigan and watch cars! Horrors!
Without being signed in to tiktok any link will poad and start playing the video without sound and with a huge popover prompt to sign in. I have to dismiss the sign in, unmute the sound, and then restart it. Same with facebook links.
I don't care if a meme started on tiktok or facebook, but being linked to them is a dog shit experience.

Just watch the TikToks, nobody cares

I care.
This is a Cambridge Analytica waiting to happen all over again.
- You can maybe use mailinator or some other temporary email service to make an account. Or did they block those services?
- I get it to an extent for privacy reasons, but most of the people making that type of comment are just going "oh no, that's what the kids are into so it's Bad". Personally I'm too apathetic about the privacy aspect to care too, bug companies are spying on us all and manipulating us all the time anyway and I just can't be bothered to get worked up about one particular one
I care. Short form video is extremely addictive. It's dangerous to open it up, if you watch a second video you just end up in a doomscroll trance
- Fair, though to my mind that's all social media, so I can't get worked up about one particular one. The reason I'm glad I was pushed off reddit is because I'd end up in a doomscroll trance there too
- Well that's just capitalism. Just like the rise of sugary drinks and booze cigs etc. We're not optimizing for the well-being of people. It's all about that dough. China is the same, but instead it's just one big extra shitty company.