Can be TikTok give when you have got their heart broken?
Do not ask myself as to why. But once i sat back at my bedroom floors, ringing ears to your echoes off my personal now-ex-boyfriend’s wobbly sound advising myself the guy planned to split things out-of, I lower my mobile and, after punctually purging they of all of the proof my personal defunct relationships, unsealed TikTok.
Immediately the For You Page, blissfully unaware of what had just happened, served me with a video video off a couple lovable gays filming an adorable skit for the adorable people webpage. Clearly, despite their seen omniscience, TikTok’s algorithm had not been listening in on my calls, nor had it been reading my texts.
When I next braved the app three weeks later, nothing had changed. There they were, taunting me again: date memes, couples’ skits, soppy compilations of Ian and you may Mickey of Shameless. The FYP had been there for me in the darkest depths of the pandemic, but now it had forsaken me; left adrift and single in the depressing sea of #relationship TikTok. Well, I thought, if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions? Up until a few weeks prior I’d been in a (seemingly) happy relationship, so videos that spoke to that experience were exactly the sort of stuff I’d eagerly engaged with. TikTok was only doing its job, but for obvious reasons I desperately wanted out of this nightmarish pit of romantic content.
I started initially to ponder how long it could make algorithm so you’re able to suss away exactly what got happened on the other hand out of the new screen (tl;dr date: gone, heart: broken) and you can punt me personally back once again to #SingleTok where I belonged. And so i create a straightforward try out: Every day I would embark on TikTok and you may scroll the newest FYP for around a half hour, ignoring dating-themed articles and you may twice-tapping anything to perform which have breakups or being unmarried http://datingranking.net/tr/mousemingle-inceleme/. Along the way I would personally try some other tactics to push the fresh software about correct direction. With a bit of chance, I would have the ability to come back my offer to help you a time where I wouldn’t need to hurl my personal phone across the room. I will deal with losing the fresh boyfriend, however, We wasn’t going to assist TikTok forgo a fight.
Big date One to
My first proper reunion with the For You Page was rough. During the 30 minutes I spent scrolling, I came across a nauseating 19 videos about relationships – including at least three couples’ accounts. Only one (a melancholy Brokeback Slope clip) seemed to capture anything resembling my current mood. As I waded through the thick sludge of content I noted down details of offending videos for later reference – we’re talking five skits with captions containing the phrase “in case the boyfriend,” three couples bragging about their gender lives, and not one but two Mickey and Ian slideshows. As a result of my thorough note-taking I was perhaps guilty of letting those TikToks play all the way through, and the app possibly misread the watch time as a massive thumbs-up, curating even more scenes of romantic idyll I didn’t want. Needless to say I came away from the experience feeling emotionally drained, but unsurprised. This was not going to happen overnight.
Time Two
For my second dive into the murky waters of the FYP, I needed a change of tack, so I resolved to mark a note on a piece of paper whenever any #relationship videos flashed up, and to swipe past them without hesitation. Once again I spent half an hour scrolling and once again I was made to feel worse for it. I’m unsure how many clips I got through in total, but 42 of them literally had the word ‘boyfriend’ in the goddamn caption. I fell back on the sofa, groaning. Try as I might to steer the algorithm towards memes regarding are led for the and away from skits from the spooning, TikTok wasn’t hearing me.