Twitter's addictive properties are well known by its warlock owner; he's its chief addict, in addition to whatever else he might be. I use it primarily to let people know about something my friends have done, and that includes the website you are currently reading. Some people use it because they can't not. Reddit is similar. I've never really understood either. I think of these places in roughly the same terms as I would a 7-Eleven. I go in for a specific thing and then I leave with the thing I went in there to get. Some people use Twitter or Reddit as a balm, medicinally, and then - as is quite routine for powerful medication - they start taking it all the time, because the lack of it begins to feel like a disease.
TikTok makes me understand it. For me, it's what the SCP Foundation would call a "cognitohazard." I remember being told that videogames and television were going to rot my brain, but after installing TikTok wholly ironically in 2017 to wind down at the end of a convention day, it got to the point where it was capable of devouring a virtually unlimited amount of time. The only limit on its appetite is the time which exists, and is produced at a fixed rate. The first time I uninstalled it, I did so in part because it had gotten to the point where I might skip a video in less than a second. I'd begun to feel like I was the subject of an experiment while using it, which, I mean… Yeah. That's true. I couldn't tell you exactly when I installed it again, but I did. It's off again now, but for a moment whenever I pick up the phone I try to find it.
I should say that I'm talking purely about myself, here. I'm odd enough generally that deeply normal things are disturbing and phenomena at the naked extremes of sensation are fine. It's possible - optimal, even - if you can use TikTok the way I can use Twitter. It has such sights to show you. For me, the choices are stark. I can have this shit on my phone, or I can write a book.
(CW)TB out.
