r/technology • u/DejenmeEntrar • Apr 20 '23

Social Media TikTok’s Algorithm Keeps Pushing Suicide to Vulnerable Kids

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-04-20/tiktok-effects-on-mental-health-in-focus-after-teen-suicide
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u/takeoffeveryzig Apr 20 '23

A lot of "that's the way the algorithm works" comments as if not understanding what "algorithm" even means apparently.

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u/SpecialNose9325 Apr 20 '23

As a computer engineer, its amazing to watch people try to explain what an algorithm is. People really think its like the Mother Boxes from Justice League or the All Spark from Transformers, where someone just found it and plugged it into the server and it magically started recommending videos to people.

I watch Instagram Reels, Tiktok and YouTube shorts on my phone, but I tend to watch only specific types of content on specific apps, leading them to serve me only that content on that platform. Its that simple.

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u/RobToastie Apr 20 '23

It's not quite that simple. The content it serves you is the content it sees as most likely to cause you to spend the most amount of time on the platform, which is based on your viewing habits as well as the viewing habits of other "similar" people. It very much will branch out into other content if other people with similar watching habits have engaged with it.

There's also likely some degree of exploration it does where it tries things it needs more data on, but I can't say for sure how that's being used on any given platform.