Hi and welcome to this solo podcast by me Isabel your host! After reading the article written by Kalley Huang “For Gen Z, TikTok IS the New Search Engine” in the New York Times I was very interested to talk about this topic in my Podcast. What is TikTok and how does (mainly) the Gen Z generation using this platform? Is it possible to start using this platform as your search engine? I will discuss that in this podcast. Enjoy Listening, and let me know your thoughts in the comments!
I recorded this podcast using the app called Anchor. This app posts the recording on spotify and therefore you can easily listen to this podcast on the go as well! 🙂
Also interessting to read:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/23/tiktok-rise-algorithm-popularity
Yes! For many TikTok is the new Reddit — a place where most of the time one would get uncensored news as it comes from ‘real’ people and ‘raw’ sources. But you have also made an interesting remark on one of the features of TikTok that specifically got my attention: the recommendation algorithm. You pointed out that the result is, as such, biased: “it’s only showing you the things you want to see,” and how this inevitably mingles with your perception of the world. And that is true — Facebook was caught red-handed during one of the presidential campaigns in the US. Yes, algorithms can cause harm (dis-/misinfromation), but algorthims are exactly what makes any platform relevant in this digital age. Polarisation and populism were always there, for any platform (be it TikTok, Google, etc.) and most platforms are now trying to combat misinformation by reducing the number of content that could cause polarisation (e.g. links to clickbait headlines). So, like with anything, we have to take the news we see on TikTok with a grain of salt.