It Appears Users Are Getting Bored With TikTok
from the might-just-work-itself-out dept
We’ve been covering many stories about a potential TikTok ban, including how unconstitutional it clearly is, how pointless it clearly is, and how even those who back it don’t seem to have a good explanation of why, beyond some vague handwaving about “China.”
But, there’s one thing that hasn’t received nearly as much attention: people seem to be getting bored with TikTok.
After demolishing the competition from 2020 through the first half of 2022, TikTok’s DAU growth rate has collapsed. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the video service lagged Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. Yes, you read that right: The ancient big blue app grew faster than TikTok.
This reminds me of when Congress was super focused on regulating Facebook, even after it was shedding users rapidly.
That’s not to say that if there is any real evidence (again, none of which has yet been shown) of dangers associated with TikTok they should be ignored. But, it is a reminder that the internet space remains incredibly dynamic, even as the media and politicians act as if what’s happening today will continue to be the way it is.
Social media sites come and go. They’re cool for kids until their parents get involved or until they go through the inevitable enshittification curve. There appear to be at least some signals that TikTok may have passed its prime and folks are starting to move on.
In short, the “problem” (if there is one) may solve itself through the simple fact that… TikTok might just not be all that cool anymore. Business Insider suggests that the original TikTok generation, who were teenagers when the app first became cool, may have since graduated and started having to live life and get a job and stuff, leaving less time for TikTok. Of course, that would ignore the fact that as younger kids age into being teens, they’re still likely to join. But, perhaps not at the same rate as before.
But, there is at least some evidence that people are just kinda TikTok’d out.
The young adults I spoke to have been on social media for a decade or more and didn’t question the impact it was having on them until recently. They started noticing that TikTok, in particular, got in the way of sleep, work, household chores and relationships. Some even say it has kept them from chasing their own creative dreams. They are now deleting the app in pursuit of more in-person experiences and tidier homes.
While that may be anecdotal, there is at least some data to back it up:
TikTok’s U.S. average monthly users between the ages of 18 and 24 declined by nearly 9% from 2022 to 2023, according to mobile analytics firm Data.ai.
In short, as it often does, Congress may be fighting (badly) the last battle, and not realizing that some of this stuff… takes care of itself.
Filed Under: kids, social media, tiktok ban, users
Companies: tiktok
Comments on “It Appears Users Are Getting Bored With TikTok”
Congress engages in this type of performative b.s. to keep us from noticing that they aren’t doing their job They don’t want to do their job because if they tackled any of the issues we actually face, then their benefactors would drop support and they would lose their bid for re-election and have to get an actual job.
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Worse than that, they have yet again demonstrated that by the time they realize something might actually be a real problem and taking appropriate action, they have wasted so much time that whatever remedy they propose is useless and overdue…
Between the grandstanding and not comprehending the topic they have made it clear they are clueless and impotent…
It's no accident.
There are still a lot of good informational videos by experts and original, entertaining videos, but they’re getting harder to find amongst the clutter.
In short, Tiktok is on its way to full-blown enshitification. The ban is unnecessary.
Keep up the fight
If the TikTok thing just “works itself out” then I’m afraid the pressure for real data privacy laws might fizzle with it.
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Non sequitur.
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And you’re talking as if there was any real concern about data privacy in the first place.
Spoiler Alert: There was never any concern about data privacy in the first place.
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"We've covered it"
JUst because you said “we’ve covered” doesn’t mean you weren’t wrong and/or lying, cuz NONE of that is true.
This is why I always have a good laugh when you cite yourself in an argument (which do a LOT): Yeah buddy, I’m saying you were lying the first time, too.
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you mad
you big mad
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One of the definitions of “lying” is “intention to deceive”. I will not accuse you a lying, because I’m starting to suspect that intentions are (now?) beyond your faculties.
I’d suggest seeking help. Somewhere other than on Techdirt. We, AC posters here on Techdirt, are very much not equipped to provide you meaningful assistance.
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That you pathologically lie about Mike Masnick doesn’t mean that Mike Masnick lied in anything Mike Masnick wrote.
Mike Masnick
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It’s uncanny how so many things you write apply to yourself in even greater measure.
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What is this, grade school? “I’m rubber you’re glue?”
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Says the dude who regularly use grade-school reasoning to seek affirmation. Hard to fathom that you’re supposedly an adult.
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Cuz it’s funny how much Mike Masnick lives rent free in your ‘manly, nobody can make me do anything I don’t want’ head.
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He learned it from you bratty matty.
Yep. And if TikTok WAS a credible threat… it would have saturated inflicted damage years ago. So congress is fighting an imaginary bogyman… that has already been (fictionally) slain. While somehow managing to ensure there is real-world, non-trivial, collateral damage.
Good job (/s).
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Imagine The Drama
Tiktok gained popularity for being edgy and degenerate. Prediction: the next big social media trend will be an Iranian-owned pro-Hezbollah social media app with strong encryption, and users will be encouraged to sarcastically send religious death threats to one-another. If that doesn’t send lawmakers and the U.S. intelligence community into a tizzy, I don’t know what will.
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“sarcastically send religious death threats to one-another”
This could be a big hit. I would look to see what happens.
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If Tik Tok’s PG-13 “degeneracy” is triggering your snowflakey thin skin wait until you discover porn!
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The site owner’s casual dismissal of the threat posed to our National Interests by the very evil Chinese Communist Party is unsurprising, coming from a person who also wants children groomed into the sex industry (while they’re also chemically sterilized and physically mutilated).
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While your post is amusing once you realize it is entirely trolling, don’t quit your day job.
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The site owner is someone who would gleefully support the CCP sapping and impurifying our most precious resources. He’s a shill, a degenerate, and a subversive.
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You go girl, defend the purity of your bodily fluids.
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Show us on the doll where Mike punked you!
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According to Wikipedia: “Punking is a street dance from the underground gay community of Los Angeles that was developed in the early 1970s.”
Very apropos!
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At least you admit your sick desires.
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The anti-rizz incel has entered the chat.
“TikTok is declining since 2022 because users are knowing that the China is spying more and more on them because China knows since then that the app will be banned somewhere in 2024. This ban is the damn best solution since it’s so effective even before being passed.” some Republican, certainly
China big bad bogeyman.
Must have enemies.
The divide and rule strategy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divide_and_rule) at work, distracting from real issues in order to keep people in line and obedient.
The plebs are always so easy to manipulate.
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If Communist China is so great, why don’t you go live there and be a CCP-slave??
Of course...
There’s another factor to consider, that at a certain point, most of the demographic who were inclined to join have joined. As a result, growth slows. There’s only 380M people in the USA, and only 8B in the world. There’s a limit to how many want to join TikTok, and as we approach that limit, new subscribers decline.
I suspect most people don’t give a flying donut hole about whether China is spying on htem. The later generations have given up worrying about privacy, every online service knows much about them, and many happily share online more details that could not be determined otherwise.
Still waiting...
… for USA Congress to address the issue of modems advertised as 56k that never deliver that speed. Any day now, I’m sure.
I am being murdered in the slowest, most sadistic, cowardly, anonymous possible way that does not leave visible signs of the murder by the evil trio of healthcare, government, and surveillance state, and i have elaborated on the crime spree that has been committed against me for ten years on this page, and now my comments have been flagged. The monsters commmitting this crime soree against me are so evil tgat it would be a sin to waste anything of greater value than one drop of water on them, because it would be like empowering the devil or the worlds most evil villains to do it. God damn you evil trio! You are not human. You are psychopaths that only look human, as japanese beetles only look like lady bugs!
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“I am being murdered in the slowest, most sadistic, cowardly, anonymous possible way that does not leave visible signs of the murder by the evil trio of healthcare, government, and surveillance state, and i have elaborated on the crime spree that has been committed against me for ten years on this page…”
Techdirt regular. Explains a lot!