Skip to main content

TikTok frenzy

 I did not know what TikTok was until very recently so one might argue this blog is biased. I say go ahead.

So apparently the Chinese have started creating products so well that they control a global mindshare beyond your pantry and closet space. This means what you think (if you do) and where you look and what you might say or do; what you ultimately buy; when you sleep or wake, is ever so cleverly manipulated through code written by Chinese programmers.  Marketers (many of them from America and Europe and everywhere) pay big money to be on this channel called TikTok.

Created by a 20 something engineer from China, the social media short video channel or platform as these things are called created a buzz instantly.  As of this writing it is claimed that half the American populace (approx. 170M have an account here). People clearly have a lot of spare time. I mean what with ordering pizza from your couch to zooming on pretend work calls what's a gal got to do?

So with this spare time people post all manners of videos (or ahem content) online for like minded viewers to consume. Cue the marketers.  Cereal to autos to insurance to whatever shirt or underwear or lipstick one wants is bombarded to billions of eyeballs glued to the piece of glass in their hands.

Apparently the ROI to average marketers is quite good. Now to the recent furor part.

This is where the story gets even more quirky.  The Americans suddenly went apeshit on this idea that their citizens were not only being brainwashed by a foreign entity but that the shrewd Chinese had somehow figured out a way to spy on America using this rather silly software in the hands of all those with time.

Well we cannot have that.  Stop it!  LOL.  I have no idea why this platform even works to be completely honest - well actually I do - because nobody goes to the library anymore. To read. A book. Or two. Among other ills. Whose fault is that? Well we can debate that ad nauseum on another blog.

Bottomline is that someone watches how to take glue off carpet in a video and suddenly its DEFCON 3. But wait there's more? What if the trick is really a way to do something sinister?

Hmm.

But indeed wait. There was more. As in TikTok got banned this weekend for a sum total of 3 hours. The entire social media kingdom must have agonized those 180 minutes when the clock so to speak stopped Tiktoking.

Then magically the ban was lifted. How come you ask? So it was just glue on carpet and not a brainwashing trick?

I think part of the answer to the riddle lies in who owns this brand. As in who are the shareholders. And lo and behold you see that the usual suspects from CA and NY have their hands all the way up to their armpits in this st(r)eaming pie.  I mean profits are delicious right?

And these same friends are friends with the new CinC.  So come on man. Do your bro a solid.  And so it goes.

We miserly few may never know the truth behind any of this nonsense one way or another just like we never knew what Covid was or is or if UFO are real or is Quinoa really good for you.

Hey but it is fun to get everyone in a frenzy once in a good while.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A few good books

 On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...
Post a Comment
Read more

Back in DC

This time for a tech conference in the realm of what else? AI. But applied to an oft neglected space called Knowledge Management. The latter is a community of practice that focuses on analyzing, organizing and making available reams of data that have been gathered over time by various functions within an organization for anyone in the company to utilize. This function or process is ripe for applying AI agents (or agentic AI framework) and optimize for better outcomes. It was informative. More rewarding was getting acquainted with folks who practice this craft as well as learning of what they see in the corporate or public sectors. Since the venue was Washington DC it also afforded me the chance to take evening strolls albeit the weather was trying. With wind chill in the single digit it still is a glamorous place to perambulate through history absorbing what this country has been through since its founding days. I was able to visit the place Lincoln was killed along with his monument t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Costa Rica

 Our first foray into Central America. That elongated isthmus that forms the geographic boundary between two vast continents of North and South America. Specifically landing for NYE 2026 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Capital city for this region that does not have its own army, instead relying on its big bro the Estados Unidos to the north is a metropolis of approx. 500K people. Largely wilderness and with both a Pacific and Carribean/Atlantic coast the country is rich in bio diversity. In Spanish it means the rich coast so named by Columbus landing in early 16th century and being mesmerized by the local tribes sporting gold jewelry.   Our stay included visiting the foothills of a large strato volcano called Arenal and enjoying the naturally heated thermal baths for a while.  Lunching amidst lush forest and watching indigenous species of avian noise makers fly overhead. Toucans, some sort of pea hens, multiple song bird species completed the spectacle. Iguanas and a lonel...
Post a Comment
Read more