Is TikTok share with when you have got the heart-broken?
You should never query me as to the reasons. But whenever i seated on my bedroom flooring, ears ringing with the echoes regarding my personal now-ex-boyfriend’s wobbly sound telling me the guy desired to crack something off, We lower my cell phone and you may, just after promptly purging it of the many proof of my defunct dating, exposed TikTok.
Immediately the For You Page, blissfully unaware of what had just happened, served me with a video from a couple of lovable gays filming an adorable skit for its lovable people web page. Clearly, despite the thought of 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 rencontre des cГ©libataires afro weeks later, nothing had changed. There they were, taunting me again: sweetheart memes, couples’ skits, soppy compilations of Ian and you may Mickey out-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 ask yourself how much time it would make the formula in order to suss away exactly what got took place on the reverse side off the brand new screen (tl;dr date: moved, heart: broken) and you can punt me back again to #SingleTok where We belonged. And so i install an easy try: Every day I would embark on TikTok and you can browse new FYP for approximately a half hour, disregarding relationship-inspired posts and twice-scraping anything to would having breakups or becoming unmarried. In the act I might test out various other strategies to nudge the latest software in the best guidance. With a bit of luck, I would personally manage to go back my provide so you’re able to a spot in which We would not must hurl my personal cellular phone along the space. I can handle shedding the latest boyfriend, however, We wasn’t planning to let TikTok go without a fight.
Day One
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 your boyfriend,” three couples bragging regarding their intercourse lifestyle, 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.
Go out One or 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 contributed toward and away from skits in the spooning, TikTok wasn’t hearing me.