My last addiction was drugs. This one is healthier, but no addictions would be best case scenario.
We all have our voices that take us away from the things most important in life, spending time with our friends and family.
All I can say is that I work towards a healthy balance everyday, and I thank God Iām off the drugs because thatās a whole other animal.
I will say though, TikTok is basically made for a yoyoer. Trucks are short, throw some cool music in the background or do a tutorial. Get a bunch of followers that in turn start yoyoing themselves. Next thing you know you got kids off the screen time and playing with a yoyo, turning the machine against itself.
Does TikTok count as social media? I mean, does it actually foster true social interaction? Or is really just a one-way vector from content creator to content consumer?
You can private message back and forth with anyone on there so in that sense, itās a form of social media. Itās a crappy way of having a social connection though as the primary focus is to consume content.
You can also leave messages in a video for all to see and the creator can comment back.
I posted a video and had adults saying cool trick, I like the regens. I got kids saying, can you go Godspeed or do spiderman 5 times in a row.
In the scheme if things itās in itās infancy. One could spend three hours watching TV, three hours playing videogames, three hours reading on the forum, three hours listening to music or three hours yoyoing. Nothing really productive came from it regardless of what you did, does that mean TikTok is the only evil one?
But on the flip side, if you watch three hours worth of one minute clips of entertainment, once you come back to the real world it has the possibility of making it hard to focus (Iām no scientist, this is purely conjecture) and you could be giving yourself mild ADHD, just like someone eating to much sugar getting juvenile diabetes.
And Iām rambling.
Itās not that people choose to spend hours upon hours consuming TikTok content that gives me pause. Itās that so many of them seem to believe that TikTok content consumption is absolutely necessary in order to be a legitimate member of society.
Iām always reminded of this rant from Emma Stoneās character in Birdman:
This notion that real life has moved online and that you are as good as dead and forgotten if you arenāt a regular part of it is just, well, very sad to me.
Oh yeah, Iām 100 percent with you on that. Anyone that thinks that has definitely got stuff twisted. It would be like saying, ādonāt listen to Dave, he is an idiot, he hasnāt even seen Game of Thronesā lol
Many people are just seeking to be validated and it does not matter if itās by dozens or thousands of people they do not know - they just want to feel as if they matter and their existence has meaning. The void is never really filled hence the need to create more and more and more and more and get more likes and follows. Iām not talking about thoughtful, edifying content that actually serves a purpose just the stupid garbage that is clearly just to draw attention to themselves even it makes them seem like they are idiots. Yoyoing on tik tok is showing off an actual skill soā¦keep doing it!
A huge portion of it is this, and I feel bad for those individuals that somehow feel they need that attention to feel self worth. It seems so obvious too, that they are either blinded to it completely or realize it and continue because it gives them a high of sorts.
Some of the stuff that appears to matter so much today wonāt matter at all in the future. Conversely, some stuff that didnāt matter very much in its time (Van Gogh, Kafka, and so on) mattered a lot later. Either way, everyone is trying their hardest to feel good today (Van Gogh and Kafka struggled with that, for example. Being considered important content later didnāt help them in their present). So, more power to those that enjoy Tiktok today. Why not? Even if itās not for me. Why not?
Heh. I wasnāt even thinking about the content creators. I was thinking primarily about the content consumers. But I forget that on platforms like TikTok, nobody is ever just a consumer. Everyone is a ācreatorā of content as well, even though it may be pointless content with little to no meaning to anyone but themselves.
I donāt really worry about people who want to express themselves; thatās just human nature no matter the era. No, I just worry about people who think their life is utterly inconsequential if it isnāt being lived entirely online for thousands of strangers to (potentially) āwitnessā.
I have some very strong opinions about TikTok that primarily stem from working with children and adolescents. I think TikTok is a platform that conditions a short attention span and makes it incredibly easy to promote misinformation, not to mention the numerous other detrimental attributes that any given social media platform has by nature. I donāt think itās just an issue of not being on the same wavelength as this generation, or being a āboomerā - there are some genuinely concerning aspects of current trends in social media that parents should at the very least be aware of, and, in my opinion, ideally seek to protect their children from. Unfortunately, protecting children from being profoundly negatively affected by social media starts with the example the parent sets, and many are unable to exceed a ādo as I say, not as I doā state of mind.
I work at a recreational facility and once an hour I will go through the pool and clean and straighten up and I see parents completely ignoring their 2-5 year old children in the water because they are scrolling social media. I see what they are looking at. They donāt think I see but I do. This is unrelated to yoyo and tik tok but I just wanted to reply to your post.
This has been an extremely interesting thread and I feel like there have been some good takes all around. Iāve really enjoyed everyones responses. I feel like social media and using social media to promote ones interests is always a touchy subject within smaller or niche hobbies. On one hand we all would like to see that thing grow and be successful but on the other āselling outā or whatever thats perceived as from a social media platform standpoint, is met with resistance. Not to mention the inherent negative impacts of participating in these platforms which I feel has been well documented.
Personally I dont really like participating in it as much as I feel like I have to. Honestly I was having a conversation with my spouse about going to a local performance arts festival this summer and handing out a bunch of cheap yoyoās and just talking to people. I want to have a local community of people who are into this and would love to generate enough interest to get a local shop going or something. For me, instead of trying to generate interest via tiktok or insta, iād rather just go out and try to do the performance art thing and try to get people interested that way. (Iām talking about the Fringe iām in Edmonton AB hit me up, iām gonna make this happen). As soon as I mentioned this she said I should be working on making a better internet profile and posting more tricks because people latch onto that stuff. I believe there is merit in that but also I just feel negatively about participating in this thing that I feel is a monster.
I guess this isnāt so much about tiktok but social media as a whole. May be slightly off topic. Your mileage may varyā¦
Very good idea!
Too bad ticktock is a massive cyber security issue wrapped in a phone app.
Yo this was an interesting thread to read through and pick up everyones takes. I want to drop some of my thoughts here now too bc itās like 2 years after OP and things have changed a tiny bit. Iām also newish still and found yoyo through Shu on AGT and pure luckā¦so Iām newish but not of the tiktok wave.
First of all, I donāt use tiktok, just not for me. I do know the kind of content yāall are talking about in here tho and see it bleed to insta but insta also has more just straight up trickcircles and seems like the best place to go if you want to see peoples trickcircles. Once insta gets to random vids, I get annoyed and go play yoyo. I do like posting trickcircles because itās a way to document my progress and helps me feel like Iām part of the community.
The vids trying to be viral, the āCan I DNA on XXXX?,ā are super formulaic and not really for us I donāt thinkā¦like not for people that yoyo already but for the uninitiated. Those vids are self-serving their creators by getting them views but it also expose people to yoyo and if 1/10,000 people that watch a DNA video fall in love w yoyo, that seems sick and worth it to me because I do want yoyo as a whole to grow and people to experience the joy of yoyo.
As of summer 2023, there are still tons of the viral style DNA vids, but there also has been an evolution since OPāthose viral vids also include 4a (and a bit of 2a now?!) along with the DNA. 4a is super cool and I see a ton of 4a exposure through those kind of videos too now and thatās pretty sick.
TL;DR Viral yoyo vids not for me or most players probably, but I still think theyāre a net positive for yoyo, especially when theyāre pushing the xdivs bc xdivs need more love.
i fully agree, when i yoyo at my college people often come up to me and ask if i can do the DNA or if i can walk the dog. itās 100% because of tiktok, and although that app is a hellscape to be a part of, i think it does a lot of good for growing the hobby. yoyofactory also makes tons of finger spin capable yo-yos now to capitalize off the small DNA boom, and i know yoyofriends is coming out with a plastic fingerspin yoyo soon. just the way the times are !
Despite all the chaos on TikTok, itās nice to see that itās actually doing some good for the yo-yo community. In fact, Iāve noticed that YoYoFactory has been releasing some awesome finger spin capable yo-yos, taking advantage of the newfound interest. Itās definitely interesting to see how times change and how trends influence the industry. You know, they definitely have no problems with getting real tiktok likes. Just my thoughts.