Supplemental Post 2 - Sabrina Sonner

 Flow and Interruption in TikTok’s Brand of Interactivity

 

This is more in response to readings from weeks ago, but I got a TikTok about a month ago, and one of the things that stuck out most to me about the app compared to other social media I’m on is the way that an uninterrupted flow of posts reads differently when the content is video rather than text. The basic idea is similar to something like Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, etc. where you see one post for as long as you want to see it and then move on, with the videos on TikTok looping until you swipe to the next one. But the effect of this uninterrupted video content of one looping video to swipe up or down or to the side into the next looping video, without any break unless the user chooses to pause something. The inactive state of TikTok is playing/active/stimulating/on, over the inactive state of a text post being more passive, something I can look away from etc. 

 

Similarly, the process of scrolling through TikTok feels more noticeably interrupted when I find videos I don’t like, see two seconds of them, swipe down, see two seconds of the next video, and so on and so forth with the effect being 5-10 clips of 1-2 seconds as I rush away from something I dislike towards something I’m looking for. I’m actively interrupting a video mid-sentence instead of swiping away when I lose interest in a Tumblr post. These interruptions of swiping away from a video, pausing a video, or even swiping to a profile away from the uninterrupted stream of videos all require user action. Though there are additional positive interactions with the app (comments, like, favorites, follows, etc.), compared to other social media more of my interactions here feel negatively motivated, like moving away from or stopping content. While all social media probably is placed similarly in the hot/cool idea, this makes me feel more like TikTok is a cool media where I’m actively participating and working to make my feed look how I want it to and give me the videos I like with higher levels of interaction on my end. Or at the very least helps me understand why I find TikTok incredibly enthralling and equally exhausting.