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I've noticed my favorite restaurants, bars, and even products being overcrowded with new people who followed a Tiktok recommendation. I think it's time to collectively gatekeep again and reclaim our spaces. Apart from recs on Perfectly Imperfect, of course. It all stays in the family.
Sep 24, 2024
Related Recs
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I'm often accused of being an "old soul", a categorization I vehemently dislike because it pretends as if my taste is because of nostalgia, as opposed to what is actually cool and compelling. (If something cool comes out now, I enjoy it, but we're in a down period when it comes to culture). But, something old about me, is that I do not care at all about TikTok ending, if does happen. If Elon takes it over from the Chinese, you might as well leave anyway, but I'm just worried at why this is a huge deal for people. It's just an app. Another one will be made. TikTok is not culture, it directly flattens culture into these ten second clips that take music, movies --- things that you need to process --- into something that is now consumed by everyone at a rapid pace, not allowing for the nuances, the style, the aesthetics to sit with us.
I have never watched something on TikTok and thought that this is something in that pushing American culture to deeper heights. I am sorry. Now I am sure they're good stuff on the app, but it's not really a necessity. Whenever I hear the words "it's blowing up on TikTok", my mind immediately growls.
I understood why X becoming overrun with Elon bots and right wingers is a big deal; X actually created things, made careers, made American life, and American events available to be seen by everyone. However, TikTok is a corrupt fantasy, chopping at the wires that make physical connection important.
Read a book! Go to the movies! Go to the restaurant of a cuisine that is unheralded, go to a baseball game. Who cares about TikTok?
@jayson
STAFF
I do enjoy perusing TikTok but I rebel in the following ways:
-reporting every video using a child as content
-saying every single ad is ”unpleasant”
-saying “not interested” on anyone who has “SAHM“ or “2025 bride” or “boy mom” in their name (this is just because I find it so fucking annoying) (wait is this somehow internalized misogyny?)
-blocking anyone that is hot just to be hot and not offering anything else of value… get that bag i guess but not from meeeee
2d ago
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I, someone who grew up adjacent to a big city and have lived in that big city since, always thought of Hot Topic as a joke. What goth teenager is buying their black clothes and accessories at the mall, after all.
I have since heard from people who didn’t grow up near big cities that Hot Topic was a place “weird” kids could feel more comfortable. It wasn’ta community in the sense of people doing anything collectively, but I don’t think people need to do anything to feel they’re part of something bigger than themselves and that they aren’t alone.
I think a TikTok community is like an online Hot Topic. If someone is stuck somewhere feeling different from everyone else, seeing a video someone like them made in a bedroom like theirs is going to be meaningful. And once they watch one, For You is going to keep showing them more like it.
It’s not like a community that might grow around a YouTuber or a streamer because it’s not based on one person. It’s based on an interest. It doesn’t fit a conventional sense of community, of course, but that’s just semantics. And since a billion people or something use tiktok there could be millions of these loose communities.
Would everyone be happier and more fulfilled by gathering with people IRL? Of course. But that doesn’t mean an online community isn’t valuable.
I love defending TikTok!
Jan 16, 2025
Top Recs from @allie_g
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some things are too sacred to share with the world. there's something really special about keeping big news to yourself and your inner circle. it's also chic as hell
Oct 23, 2024
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Posting stories is soo over. Especially posting where you are and when you're there. It's all about living in the moment now and posting way after the fact if you feel like it.
Oct 15, 2024
May 14, 2024