this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2025
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I never used either. Never really understood the culture of gormlessly scrolling through mind-numbing content.
But then I also gave up broadcast TV before even Netflix was popular. Just spent a small fortune on bargain bin DVDs instead.
me nervously doom-scrolling on lemmy via voyager 👀
I've been averse to trends like this, but I did get on Facebook and Insta this summer at the urging of some friends (I run a nonprofit so it's useful to network). By last week I had both apps on my phone and was just numbscrolling through Insta videos. Realized my mental health had gone to absolute shit in weeks. Deleted the apps andI'm feeling myself again.
It really is dangerous what they've created, if I didn't have ambition, I would be right there zombified.
It's mainly the kids and low information adults who are on Tiktok, that's why it's popular.
It was less a "cultural thing" and more a functional drift. From the RSS feed to Web2.0 timelines to feed by preference to The Algorithm of ad-promoted content.
Like with email, it wasn't always just a fountain of spam. Our systems have been deliberately and predatorially enshittified.
There's a great deal of real news that goes through the app. It's the majority of the content I see.
Is there though?
I know this sounds sarcastic, but I'm genuinely curious as I have never used TikTok at all. It there any way to verify the stuff that's being shown? Do news accounts link to articles or any supporting information?
All I've ever really seen from people sharing stuff has been new typical meme stuff and AI generated crap that people keep sending me thinking it's real.
How can you tell if what you're seeing is real?
The good "creators" to follow for news generally provide a summary in Tiktok, then if you want to verify or learn more they have additional information and sources in their other locations (substack is a big one)
I can generally tell if it's AI generated, and if I have any suspicion then I try to find other reports and real sources via Google searches and whatnot. Like I didn't believe the gold trump statue, or the trump and Epstein statue were real.
Good to know there's some context available if you want it. Thanks for taking the time to reply!