TikTok

Article

TikTok is a recurring brand in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between May 14, 2021 and May 15, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as “TikTok-sponsored video telling me to stop scrolling”; “What about the age of TikTok and Instagram?“. It most often appears alongside Amazon, YouTube, ACX survey.

Metadata

• Category: Brands
• Mention count: 2
• Issue count: 2
• First seen: May 14, 2021
• Last seen: May 15, 2025

Appears In

• Your Book Review: Addiction By Design
• Book Review: Selfish Reasons To Have More Kids

Related Pages

• • Amazon (2 shared issues)
• • YouTube (2 shared issues)
• • ACX survey (1 shared issues)
• • Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas (1 shared issues)
• • American Gaming Association (1 shared issues)
• • Astralcodexten Com (1 shared issues)
• • Australian Gambling Research Center (1 shared issues)
• • B. F. Skinner (1 shared issues)
• • Bally (1 shared issues)
• • Barbara Kingsolver (1 shared issues)
• • Bianchi et al (1 shared issues)
• • Big Tobacco (1 shared issues)

External Links

• • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ik_people
• • https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/helping-users-manage-their-screen-time
• • https://www.amazon.com/Closing-American-Mind-Education-Impoverished/dp/1451683200/ref=sr_1_1?crid=SAPRLAFUD8ML&keywords=Closing+of+the+American+Mind&qid=1680632698&s=books&sprefix=closing+of+the+american+mind%2Cstripbooks%2C221&sr=1-1
• • https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/secrets-of-the-great-families
• • https://www.buzzfeed.com/daily/tiktok-dissociative-identity-disorder-did-mental-health
• • https://www.tiktok.com/@geodendrochromosaur/video/7072914858823568686?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1
• • https://www.tiktok.com/@thistrippyhippie
• • https://www.tiktok.com/@tiktoktips/video/6781608784990178566
• • https://x.com/RichardHanania/status/1867335298491068769

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Your Book Review: Addiction By Design

May 14, 2021 · Original source

I was scrolling through TikTok videos a few weeks ago when I came across a TikTok-sponsored video telling me to stop scrolling and go outside. I was confused. Here I was, perfectly willing (nay, wanting) to spend hours watching dance routines and drawing tutorials I had no intention of copying, but TikTok wanted me to stop? Why? Shouldn’t they have been taking advantage of me to maximize “eyeballs,” “time per session,” and “user engagement”?

Inline links: a TikTok-sponsored video

One explanation is that TikTok is a good corporate citizen that helps its users maintain responsible screen time habits. Another explanation comes from Natasha Dow Schüll’s excellent book Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas (2012). Schüll talks about gambling machines, people who use them, and the addictions that develop between the two. I think the conclusions she draws are applicable not only to the gambling industry, but also to other peddlers of vice like TikTok.

Inline links: Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas

I’ve felt the attraction of this dark flow when I’m searching for something to escape from real life for just an hour or two. For me, it takes the form of scrolling through a social media feed. It could be Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, or YouTube. I don’t look for anything in particular. I just want the comfort of scrolling through endless meaningless content. Sometimes, I don’t even fully absorb the content. If you took my phone away from me and asked me to name five things I saw, I doubt I’d be able to answer. The content just flows through me while I escape into a zone where real life doesn’t matter.

Book Review: Selfish Reasons To Have More Kids

May 15, 2025 · Original source

Wise words - in 2011, when SRTHMK was written. What about the age of TikTok and Instagram?

Backlinks

• Book Review: Selfish Reasons To Have More Kids
• Brands
• Your Book Review: Addiction By Design