The Debate Over TikTok.

Is it a net positive for society or an addictive distraction from reality?

There’s an interesting perspective from Tristan Harris, an American tech ethicist.

TikTok in China, called Douyin is very different to the Western version.

Both apps on the surface look very similar, but when you look at the content they show, they’re vastly different.

If you’re under 14, Douyin will show you science experiments, museum exhibits, patriotism videos and educational videos and it’s limited to 40 minutes per day.

This is not the version of TikTok which is sold to the rest of the world.

As Harris put it, Bytedance is selling the same version in China as the “spinach version”, while in the West we get the “opium version”.

I saw a shocking stat recently - in Australia, users spend on average 29 hours and 36 minutes per month on the platform. And the reality is, if you asked anyone what was the last 6 TikToks they watched, they wouldn’t know.

Although with TikTok there are a lot more red flags than with other platforms, they’re not the only culprit.

All social media platforms have the same business model where the user is the product.

It’s why I often find myself deleting social platforms from my phone and see an instant improvement in my mental health.

Social Media is undoubtedly a powerful tool. But platforms should serve us, not suck us in.

While for now, it may seem like a far-fetched idea, it’s why I believe the future of Social will be decentralised. Where users own and control their own data, meaningfully contributing to the platform, and owning a part of it, not being the product of it.