From time to time, various assumptions are made about the algorithms of TikTok and similar social media applications. Researchers sought an answer to one of these assumptions. Can TikTok read our minds? Let's examine the research on the subject.
Various discussions are emerging about Tiktok's algorithms for determining what content to display. One of these discussions is How TikTok Reads Your Mind, which was published in the New York Times recently. It came up with the news.
In the news, it was claimed that TikTok's video highlighting features developed as a result of a mind reading for various reasons. But TikTok and other social media apps focus more on what their users are doing inside the app than what's on their minds. On TikTok, users can upload and view various short-form videos. As users post and consume videos, more and more similar videos are served to them.
"TikTok doesn't read minds, it creates mindsets"
This year, a study was conducted by researchers at Boston University, Binghamton University and University of London on how TikTok's algorithm works. In the study, 400 TikTok videos were analyzed to understand the factors that caused a short video to go viral. In the review, there were 10 factors that could cause a video to be liked by users, such as whether the video owner is popular or not, the video style.
As a result of the study, the most important features between viral and non-viral videos were determined. The most important factor in making a video go viral was the popularity of the video creator. The second biggest factor was whether the video included close-ups. In 2019, researchers at Guilin University of Electronic Technology in China and the University of Oslo in Norway examined the number of views and likes of TikTok videos, proving that popular videos were "liked" by users.
As a result, the researchers emphasized that whether to show videos that interest users on TikTok or any social media platform is an example of engineering, not mind reading. Even though people spend a lot of time on social media, they can't actually be on social media. The most important factor in the succession of videos that attract the attention of users is the existence of a software system that develops according to the rates of views and likes. The algorithm works independently of the human mind.
