What I Have In Common With TikTok

I, too, am annoying. I too, have an internal algorithm that rewards the most controversial content first, and I, too, am about to be out of a job.

But that is not the point of this article.

I'd rather use my time to discuss something important and bear with me, it's a topic no one wishes to discuss: what is it about social media that seems to bring out the worst in people? Why is Facebook's algorithm rewarding 98% of its traffic to those who pay for ads? Why did Twitter exit into the hands of Elon Musk (sorry, I am not a fan)? These will be answered.

First, TikTok.

Stop Blaming Politics

An article by David Ingram notedly mentioned that TikTok's primary reason for its fair share of crud over the past few years is based on politics. Claiming in 2023 that Chinese propaganda sparked the first centralization of the platform's oncoming demise, I feel I need to speak for the entire world when I say:

"Politics are political."

I am not here to condone this, but it seems we are focusing on all of the negatives of social media these days, and never rewarding the good. I have seen GoFundMe campaigns dedicated to Islamic relief catapult into the millions on Facebook; I have seen suicidal individuals on Reddit talked off of the ledge by fellow contributors (I believe this is the first time anyone has ever said anything good about Reddit, and I stand by it)...

...so despite what we think we know, remember that just like the TikTok algorithm, it favors controversy. This is because the more you engage an audience, and the earlier you catch them, the further down the rabbit hole you can force them, and this then leads to ads.

Ads Are Taking Over, Not Robots

(Side note, just for fun: when I Googled this topic, I was met with - you guessed it - ads!)

Poor Elon Musk. He bought a company, tried to rebrand it by taking a clever name and turning it into a single letter (and one that, if tripled, indicates either moonshine or adult material), and then in 2023 its ad revenue dropped 50%. Though Twitter (I'm sorry, "X", which may as well be a logo of a nipple) continues to struggle, SpaceX continues to prevent its rockets from exploding.

Good job, Sir Musk.

Across the board, we are becoming hypersensitive to ads, with the average individual spending roughly 7 hours on social media, and seeing a total of 10,000 ads daily.

If you do the math, that is roughly 1,428 ads an hour, if we choose to believe that the majority come from social media, but I digress. The point is, as native programming becomes a customary caution, and as small businesses struggle to compete in a pay-to-play model, it almost feels as if the entire ad industry is becoming a game.

AI IS Going To Take Your Jobs, You Know

Everyone keeps saying: "AI will create more jobs than it will take."

If you believe that, so be it. I admit, many said self-checkout machines at CVS and Publix would take jobs from cashiers, but roughly twenty years later, we see that there are additional employees hired to stand by them, just waiting for the machine to screw up.

However, there is a difference. Self-checkouts are one thing, but if you have been following the trends, it is clear that just about anyone in a creative, programmatic, or non-labor-intensive industry is going to struggle. The below image represents what I am talking about.

I know this is LinkedIn, and professionalism is rewarded, but this warrants an "F" bomb. I.E. 'W-T-F?" There is a lot of debauchery circulating, stating that in some way, shape, or form, design and writing will never be truly robotic, I beg to differ. If I can type in: "A scary image of robots taking over the earth," click: "Enter," and then four images generate in less than 10 seconds flat, why on earth would I pay a graphic designer?

I know, because AI does not have the same control over its material, but give it time. We have seen what I was talking about a little over a year ago in several of my articles:

We are teaching algorithms to teach themselves, and that is how SkyNet started. "Terminator II" may not be upon us, but if you want to blame Biden for a screwed-up economy, consider that it was most likely ChatGPT that wrote his speeches.

There Is Nothing Funny About This

This may all sound like fun and games, but I am trying to make a really, really important point here: we need to step back from technology a bit. I think much like COVID-19 caused a year-long quarantine, we should be doing the same with technology (comment if you agree).

I admit, I use ChatGPT for mundane tasks. Most of my emails are automated, and it is frightening how higher my open rates are compared to when I wrote them in person. This sense of dependence is much like a drug addict: it realizes something is solving an emotional or physiological problem, and so it craves it, and the more it uses the drug, the more the body becomes adapted to it. And at the end of the day, it is either jails, institutions, death, or detox.

I advise you to comment below if you feel this was worth, at the very least, a light yawn, and pardon the brevity, but I have work to do. I just had to vent, and I appreciate the LinkedIn community listening. With that said, I have one last thing to say, and I speak for 99% of us:

Stop sending me unsolicited pitches. I'm a Life Coach, yes, but I do not need to increase my clientele base by 10X in six months or my money is refunded from Nigeria.

Thank you, my people, and aren't you supposed to be at work?

COMMENT IF YOU WANT, LIKE IF YOU CAN, SHARE IF YOU MUST

Best,

-Ryan W. McClellan, MS

www.circle5book.com

www.valiancecoach.com