A Detached Adult’s Guide to Child Culture: People Dance With Artificially Created Babies.
Your social media feed probably shows a completely different story, but this week, young people are leaving TikTok (or at least posting about leaving TikTok), AI and humanity are in a fierce dance battle, AI-generated food is screaming at everyone, and we’re learning a lot about “young girls.”
TikTok Refugees Are Switching to Upscrolled
Since its launch in 2017, TikTok has become a key social network for young people, but that could change. Concern over recent changes to the app’s privacy policy and accusations that its new American owners are hijacking the algorithm are prompting some users to delete their accounts and leave. Or at least to announce their departure. But where will they go?
The last time something similar happened , TikTok users switched to another Chinese social media app called RedNote, but this time, many say they’re switching to Upscrolled . The app, which briefly topped the App Store charts , was created by Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian entrepreneur Issam Hijazi. Upscrolled promises an antidote to the “double standards, algorithmic bias, selective censorship, and profit-over-principles” characteristic of other social media platforms. The app doesn’t allow “hate speech,” but promises less censorship of ideas, no shadowbanning, no data sharing, and “no black-box AI” content curation, all in a format users are familiar with.
So, what are the downsides? The team is small, and the site appears to be struggling with the number of downloads . Even more alarming are reports of a huge amount of anti-Semitic material appearing on the site. In a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Upscrolled spokesperson Gabriella Bord wrote, “Our content moderation is struggling to cope with the surge in users this week,” and “We are working with digital rights experts to expand our trust and safety team and strengthen content moderation to prevent this,” so perhaps the moderation team is simply experiencing growing pains.
Viral video of the week: A baby dance between a human and artificial intelligence.
This week’s viral video is more of a viral trend, and it features a dancing baby battle.
It all starts with the post below from @mindalchemy0236 , for which I apologize in advance.
The “Baby Dance” app commercial has garnered over 100 million views. It became so popular on TikTok that users fought back the only way they could: by dancing. In a modern take on the American myth of John Henry versus the Steam Engine, TikTok users engaged in a dance battle with artificial intelligence. People responded to the annoying ad with videos of their children performing the same dance live, joking that it saved them $1.98—the price of the app.
The children picked up on this theme, while simultaneously criticizing artificial intelligence.
Then the adults got involved.
Grandmothers started doing this.
And celebrities like Lisa Rinna got in on the action too.
And so it all played out, and some users believe humans ultimately won because TikTok’s algorithm shows more human-made remakes than the original ads, which everyone found annoying. What does all this mean? Is this how the war between robots and humans will be decided? What does this have to do with the original dancing baby, one of the first internet memes? Is history reversing, and should we invest in Ally McBeal reruns? I just don’t know, but whatever the case, John Henry won the battle with the steam shovel, but his efforts wore him down and he died.
Videos of AI screaming food: Bad for the brain, but good for your health.
I always try to find something good in artificial intelligence. So far, I’ve found the following:
But I’m adding videos of food yelling at people.
Seriously. This increasingly popular meme format involves asking AI to create videos in which food angrily tells you how to cook and store it properly and safely. They’re entertaining, educational, and if just one person remembers to throw out that rice left outside , it could save a life and make all those cooling waters worth it. Kids need to know all this nonsense, and for some reason they love this crap. Look at these beefy guys:
And here are these angry guys:
I can’t vouch for the accuracy of every food tip listed in the hashtag , but I’ve watched a lot of these videos and so far they’re pretty reliable.
What does “young ho” mean?
I’m sure you know what the words “ho” and “young” mean, but when you put them together, you get something else: both a reimagining of the word “ho” and an expression of solidarity among young people.
The trend started with mildly offensive posts on X in which older people criticized younger people, like this one:
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But on TikTok, the account @kensdremgurl went viral with a mini-manifesto for young girls:
To sum up the list, one can say: “a young prostitute is just someone who has gotten rid of inconveniences.”
Other TikTok users began listing common traits they shared among young girls.
and, making my own observations, adding the following signs to the list:
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They throw away Chinese food containers even if their mother wants to keep them.