Elizabeth

Posted Saturday, January 1, 2022

2y

INFJ

Gemini

9

1

Tik Tok bigger than Google?

Apparently TikTok is more widely used than Google. Which is concerning due to a few reasons. Mostly dealing with misinformation about covid. Warning this will get political. This is not to dis on anyone who uses TikTok, I use it occasionally to make art videos. Anyway, the issue I do have is that you have a large portion of the QAnons on TikTok that will spread many different theories they will take as fact. There's already soany evangrlists that are in this route that seem very "reputable". This leads to a lot of misinformation to be shared in such a fast and algorithmic way that it's very concerning to see. I know almost every day I can go downstairs when my dad's home and his phone is blaring. Often with something like "the vaccine doesn't work" "don't get the tracker!" Or "the vaccinated are what's infecting the population." All bogus and my dad sits there and believes it, he then sends it to everyone he knows, even myself at times. And that misinformation gets spread around like crazy since he is viewed as "reputable" by friends and family. Then there is the extreme side of it where there's quite literally worship of Trump. Comparing him to Jesus and all that. I had to try to tell my family that Trump is only just a former president and to not view him as this deity. But they won't listen to that. bearing in mind this is partially from TikTok but it creates a mass amount of misleading content to be shared. Yet when you Google for adequate news sources to see if what they are saying might be a hint of truth, you can't find anything substantial. One instance my dad was yelling about Tennessee or Kentucky having "unvaccinated camps" and that they were going to force the vaccine on people. When that wasn't true, it was just some pastor he seen as reputable saying it and it spreading like wildfire from that. I tried to console him to just look at both sides and such only to be yelled at with "Then go die in those camps. I'm going to go to war!" Which is just frustrating to deal with on at least a few times a month basis. Anyway, it's just becoming a major source of misinformation regarding politics. And even psychology, business, etc.