Published on 12, July, 2020
Since March I've mostly been self-isolating & shielding, I thought the lockdown would be difficult for me as I live on my own and apart from a TV didn't have much else to do. However, I discovered TikTok and it's really been a life saver for me. It's a great App (developed by the Chinese company Dance Bytes) where you can literally spend hours scrolling random 15 second or 60 second videos, the app very quickly knows the kind of content that you will like, everyone has a FYP (For You Page) so if you watch a video and follow the creator and click on Like then the algorithm will find similar content to send your way. Originally, most of the videos were of young people dancing and lip syncing to music! There's a search / discovery option so you can save all the things you're into for example Dr Who, Scifi, Cosplay, Supercars, Autism, Mental Health, BLM, news, pranks, exercise, fitness the list goes on and on... they have over 800 million users around the world including about 20 million in America although Trump has signed an executive order to have it banned unless it can be sold to an American company by 15th September. It's interesting to watch videos that people all around the world have made, you get to find out a lot about how people live and the problems they encounter, it make the world a smaller place. As an autistic adult watching Tiktok videos is now a big part of my daily routine, I suffer a lot from stress and anxiety and it helps me relax, but be warmed it can be addictive! I haven't said anything about actually creating your own videos because I haven't done that yet, maybe a creator on this forum would like to comment. One great creator to connect with is Dan Morgan Jones of The Aspie World @theaspieworld his content is always inspirational but usually leaves me exhausted after watching his videos on Youtube!
I like Paul from 'Asperger's from the Inside' (on youtube). I guess that's partly because he's quite analytical and focused on the 'emotional intelligence' side of things.
I've kept to youtube for videos. TikTok is uncharted territory for me. I'm pleased it's been fun and good to learn from.
Actually, I’m not against SM. It’s a common thing nowadays. In short, SMs are hunting our attention, which is a sort of currency for them cause they literally sell our attention to advertisers. I use it for promoting business too. When we just signed up, we bought some comments on [link removed by Mod] to make the account more popular. Eventually, we reached 500k followers, which is enough for my business niche (I have a restaurant). So, you choose what you pay attention to.
Tbh, I try not to spend too much time browsing tiktok. I mostly use it to promote my offline business, but I still can’t reach enough followers and likes.