Cannot ask me as to the reasons. However, once i sat back at my room floor, ears ringing into echoes regarding my personal today-ex-boyfriend’s wobbly voice informing me personally he wished to crack anything away from, I paid off my personal cell phone and you may, after promptly purging they of all proof of my defunct relationship, unwrapped TikTok.
Immediately the For You Page, blissfully unaware of what had just happened, served me with a video off a couple of adorable gays filming an adorable skit for their adorable 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 weeks later, nothing had changed. There they were, taunting me again: boyfriend 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.
We started to ask yourself how much time it would do the algorithm so you’re able to suss away just what had taken place on the reverse side away from the latest display screen (tl;dr boyfriend: moved, heart: broken) and you will punt me personally back to #SingleTok in which We belonged. Thus i set-up a simple test: Day-after-day I would personally carry on TikTok and you will search new FYP for approximately half-hour, ignoring relationship-inspired posts and you may twice-tapping almost anything to would with breakups or becoming solitary. Along the way I’d test https://datingranking.net/fr/se-faire-des-amis/ out added techniques to push the brand new software throughout the correct guidelines. With some chance, I’d have the ability to get back my personal provide to a point in which We wouldn’t need to hurl my cellular telephone along side area. I am able to handle shedding the fresh date, but We wasn’t planning to let TikTok forgo a fight.
Go out That
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 Mountain 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 “should your boyfriend,” three couples bragging about their sex existence, 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.
Day A couple
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 on being added into and away from skits regarding spooning, TikTok wasn’t hearing me.
