The TikTok-ification of TV is Coming

undergone with my own personal media habits. There's just no other way to say it. TikTok has broken my middle aged brain. Stick around, and I'll explain why. Welcome back by I record this day's after President Trump issued in executive order granting a seventy five day extension on the TikTok ban in order to facilitate a sale to an American company. There is so much to say about the implications of all this from a business perspective, a cultural perspective.

But you know what, you won't hear any of that from me on this edition of the podcast, because, as I said, I cannot in good conscience sit here any longer like it's just another episode and pontificate per usual about all things media with guests until I've come clean about what has hit me with the force of a religious experience in recent months, and maybe a spiritual metaphor is the best way to explain what I'm trying to convey.

After fifty years of faithful devotion to TV, I've converted to TikTok.

I had to. And though I am pathetically late to the party and just too darn old to be captivated by TikTok in the first place, I must share what this experience has been like because it's left me with some observations about not just this powerful platform, but the future of media in general. I know it's a lot to take in, and I'm as surprised to hear these words coming out of my mouth as anyone, because prior to my conversion, I've always found something dystopian about the

whole notion of TikTok. User generated clips shot rapid fire into my cerebral cortex, shredding my attention span. But what can I say? That sweet sweet algorithm has worked its magic on my mind over enough time to cast a spell on me. I've come to love meme culture and the relative absence of mainstream media culture on the platform. And there's just so much more that I'll get into here. But before I pontificate any further, let me just acknowledge

this much. I totally get it. If your reaction to what little I've said so far is okay, boomer, thanks but no thanks, not interested in insights from the last oldest TikTok adopter on Earth? Why don't you come back next week? Some hot takes on what MySpace or for inster was like too, And I get it. That's a totally valid reaction, though I should point out first I'm not a boomer. I'm Generation X old, but not that old.

If you want to just bail right now before I unpack this any further, I could accept that you won't hurt my feelings. I'm sure there's a fresh four our Joe Rogan interview that's a better use of your time. But for those of you who have stuck around first, thanks for giving me a chance. I should also clarify it's not like I suddenly discovered TikTok in twenty twenty five after crawling out from under whatever rock I was

living under. I've had the app on my phone for several years for the occasion when someone mentioned something I wanted to see on TikTok, I'd use the app to check it out, always wondering, considering its vaunted algorithm, whether it was akin to taking a hit from a crack pipe. But I would dip in, dip out, figuring I was old enough to be impervious to its charms until this year.

What drew me to TikTok long enough to get sufficiently seduced this time around came late last year, when the political drama around the app's existence was at its high point. I was curious to get a first hand sense of how the crisis was being felt by the TikTok Faithful and truth be told. While I was struck by the creativity and passion of many on the platform. I wasn't impressed anymore by what I was seeing on TikTok than

I was on any other social platform. You have to understand I've been following digital native content trends for nearly two decades, dating back to the earliest days of YouTube and the earliest flowerings of the creator economy, back before it was called the creator economy, before they were even called influencers. And I followed these trends as the momentum move from one platform to another, whether it was Vine or Switch or Snapchat, each had their own quirks and idiosyncrasies.

But through it all, I always prided myself on keeping a kind of anthropological detachment from it all. I admired from a distance, but never really got drawn in personally. But now, in twenty twenty five, the truth is the programming experience of TikTok has been so thoroughly co opted by rival copycat products like Instagram reels and YouTube shorts that when I talk about TikTok, I'm not really talking

about TikTok per se. It's format that algorithmically targeted torrent of short form videos curated by my thumb swiping with such reptilian efficiency, it almost feels like my hand is operating independently from my brain. I call it the clip scroll format. TikTok created it, but apparently couldn't patent it. That said, TikTok's algorithmic magic may be more powerful than the other platforms, at the very least deserves credit for

pioneering the format that's become so addictive. Addiction. Yeah, that's a word I must admit I shouldn't be using loosely when it comes to TikTok or any social apps. There are serious concerns about the power they have, particularly with its youngest users. Not to mention the serious concerns about the potential espionage risk that TikTok app presents, I'd be remissing not referencing these dangers. And yet I must admit none of that stop me from falling head over heels

in love with TikTok. And here's what may be the most tragic part of all. I see that the hours I spend on TikTok now each day clearly come at the expense of the time I used to spend watching TV. I just don't watch. I just don't watch a half hour or hour long shows at the volume that I used to. When after enjoying the first season of Severance recently, I found myself bored with season two. Even amid all that hype, I wondered if my TV taste buds were

somehow permanently broken. Well, at least I'm still watching White Lotus, though I think that's about the only TV show I've been watching these days. But here's the thing. It's hard not to give TikTok credit for stealing the wind from TV sales, because when I reflect on TikTok's bounty, I see the seeds of so much what I had previously gotten from TV, super served by TikTok. Let me start

with a counter intuitive example. I've really gotten to enjoy keeping up with what the biggest memes are on TikTok. The one that I cannot seem to get out of my head right now is people dancing to a rap song called you Gotta cut It, cut It, cut It, cut It, cut It, cut It, cut It, cut it, cut it Now. Maybe hip hop isn't your cup of tea, but I promise, if you let this earworm in your brain, it's gonna burrow so deep in there you'll never get it out. But let me get back to my point.

How is something like memes, which are so particular to the Internet and not television, end up displacing my TV habit? Well, this is why I think. Part of what has made memes so compelling to me is that in our increasingly fragmented culture, where so many people are experiencing different and content a far cry from decades ago when the TV was the great unifying force that could bring together tens of millions of people on any given night, These memes and the way people play on them are as close

to unifying our culture in its own interactive way. They make me feel connected to a larger culture and so you got to cut it and just feels more important to me right now than say, white lotus. Now, I know what you're thinking, Andy, This kind of mean play has been around on other platforms long before TikTok, So what makes so special here? And to that, I say, it's just different. On TikTok the level of creativity employed

and the memes feels higher. And for those who disagree with that, okay, But here's where I think there's no argument the TikTok ux is just a superior delivery mechanism than any other social platform. Maybe it's the same old content, but it's different now. And I'll tell you what else. Maybe it's something particular to my feed, certainly not something I set out to cultivate. But the mainstream Hollywood galaxy of stars has such a muted presence in my feed.

Don't get me wrong. I follow the accounts on TikTok of dozens of actors, performers, singers, whatever, and I know that sounds like a knock against mainstream Hollywood entertainment culture, but it's not meant to be. There's plenty I like about the culture that I get everywhere else, But on TikTok it feels like the algorithm just intuitive that I would prefer to turn the dimmer down on the celebrity

industrial complex. They don't loom nearly as large on TikTok, which doesn't have the top down entertainer elite separated by the unwashed mass audiences. It's a more democratic medium where the distinction between the entertainer and the audience doesn't really exist.

It's such a refreshing differentiating thing that makes the app just a fascinating world to inhabit, and into the vacuum of all the oxygen that the celebrity industrial complex typically sucks up steps in this explosion of homegrown talent on the platform. Now, I wouldn't blame you if you started to get an ick feeling right about now thinking about the brand name creators out there, from mister Beast to

the Paul Brothers. I'm just not a huge fan of these types, because there's something off putting to me about how sweaty that class of entertainers comes off, constantly shilling for themselves with they're desperate hit the subscribe button pitches and shilling for whatever brand is paying them. But that's not who populate my TikTok feed. Those who do are mostly thousands of not famous at least yet, people who

may not be household names, but they've got talent. Watching TikTok makes you feel like what many of us already suspect about Hollywood. It's not as if their most successful performers possess some kind of rare talent that separates them from the masses, like the way you say your average pro athlete is world's better than ninety nine percent of

the rest of the population. Now, TikTok gives the lie to that notion by exposing that there's many many people out there with comparable levels of talent to the lucky group that makes it through the Hollywood machine and onto our screens. And these many, many people just needed a discovery mechanism powerful enough to elevate them. And that's where TikTok comes in. If you had to pin me down to defining in one word, what gives TikTok gets a llure,

I'm going to use a very scientific term, the vibe. Okay, maybe I'll need a few more words to capture what that vibe is. It's like everyone on TikTok is in a dance circle, taking turns, making each other laugh at the center with the silly jig. It's like you're inviting

let me try something else. It's like you're invited to this gigantic potluck dinner where many people have taken it upon themselves to generously share the content they've cooked up, and you have this endless buffet that just gets shotgunned into your mouth in perfect little snackable bites. I myself don't contribute content, preferring to stay what they call, in

Internet parlance, a lurker. But that's not unusual. A Pew Research Center study last year found that just twenty five percent of the most active people on the platform produced ninety eight percent of its content. Let me try to capture what I love about TikTok using a TV metaphor of sorts. Imagine if Saturday Night Live was a medium

onto itself. Instead of about twenty performers Lauren Michael's pluck from obscurity, there's about one thousand more cast members just cranking out comedic vignettes on their own instead of relying on Lauren's taste and sketches, which frankly is a mixed track record. That's a subject for another podcast. You could just curate your own group from a vast sea of talent that you didn't know existed. And like SNL, some of the comedy comes from some pretty classic categories, like

celebrity impressionists. But on an average episode of SNL, you're lucky if you'll see more than two impressionisms at work. On TikTok, you could sift through two hundred of them in a minute, and the quality differential from what you see on SNL. It's not that slim.

on TikTok. They're not new or exclusive to the platform. They may even have bigger followings on other platforms where they got their start before moving to TikTok. I'm sure I've seen their videos years ago, but the point is that TikTok is the platform that made this experience sticky. I've been on Instagram YouTube for many years and have never felt anything like the rabbit hole drop that TikTok delivers every time out. And there's a lot of different

types of comedy to choose from. I've gotten into this whole cottage industry of teachers who like to imitate their young students. And I'm a dad, so there's like five hundred men out there contributing dad jokes into my feed in an endless supply. And as a married man, I also enjoy the entire genre of couple's humor, where real life husband and wives who fancy themselves comedy duos dissect

relationship pitfalls pretty endlessly. I think my favorite is a well known TikTok pairing Alex and John, who have millions of followers.

but just don't see on TV anymore. I mean, forget about couple sitcoms. I don't find myself watching sitcoms at all. Really, And have you seen a comedy in a movie theater lately? Come to think of it, I think you could draw an even broader conclusion that the vast array of comedy you can overdose on TikTok comes at the expense of the rest of media. I just don't think it's a coincidence that comedy could not seem more dead in film and TV right now, while on TikTok it's alive and well.

Now I realize I've been painting a picture in this podcast of TikTok standing apart from the rest of culture. But after the break I'll get into why that's not an accurate picture entirely. We are back with my endless jeremiad about the state of television and the triumph that I think TikTok has had its expense. And look, it's not that pop culture as we know it is absent

from TikTok. Now TikTok is very much in dialogue with culture, but instead of just being like another TV channel or movie theater or streaming service or the performer and programs djor distribute their content, TikTokers meet these brands on their own terms, and those terms are typically through the filter

of fan worship or ridicule. Like any other social platform, it's where the water cooler conversation happens, even though the content that spurs the conversation isn't available on the platform. For instance, if there's one TV show I've Stuck with its White Lotus, but no episode is complete without watching all the satirical reactions each episode prompts, the most famous of which is mining maximum yucks out of every heavily

accent accented utterance from Parker Posey's mouth. But it's not just about sharing the post, it's each user putting their own unique spin on it, like this one set to auto tune.

have you. These are fan accounts I follow that spit out nothing but clips of TV shows I enjoyed ages ago but had no plans to revisit. Like community and entourage that make me reappreciate enough to increase the likelihood of me revisiting an episode. But I think TikTok serves an additional function as something of a highlight reel for content I'm just not going to follow back to the TV because the excerpted clips from that programming is how

I want to consume it. With all due respect to the great late night comedians like Colbert and Kimmel and John Stewart, on and on, I'm not going to sit down for a long form linear TV experience. I want the best moments from those shows sliced and diced in my feed, or I'm just not going to watch it at all. Sorry. And the same goes for news content. Whether it's coming from twenty four hour news networks or newspapers,

all of them have TikTok accounts. But I will say that, unlike with comedy, where I find myself enjoying lots of new personalities and in addition to a highlight reel of establishment figures, with news, I find myself sticking to the

tried and true brands. I know there's a lot of amateur commentators and analysts doing their thing on TikTok, but it just doesn't do it for me, and I don't want to forget to acknowledge that TikTok has been home to lots of different experimentation and narrative driven storytelling but in short form formats. But like news, nothing really is stuck with me yet, though I have a feeling maybe that's just a matter of time. Take the Chinese microdrama Fomenon,

for instance. They maintain a healthy presence on TikTok, though that's really just a promotional platform for driving consumers off platform to apps of their own, like Real Short and Drama Box. Look. I find most of this content unwatchable. It's just not my cup of tea. But when you see this ferment of creativity. You have to wonder whether, as unthinkable as it sounds, there's an inevitability to TikTokers cracking the code on the kind of content it will

feel more directly competitive with traditional dramas. Maybe the closest thing to that is a whole genre of what I'd call confessional videos, where real people of all kinds candidly share from the struggles in their lives on TikTok, and they interact with the fan bases they build there. It's pure monologues, but they have that voyeuristic frison you get from watching good reality TV. There's so much more I get out of TikTok. We'd be here all day if I drilled too deep into any one of the many

categories of content that float my boat. Like I'm an avid road biker, so I watch videos of bikers in action. Been playing a lot of basketball lately, So I watch instructors break down all sorts of shooting mechanics used to DJ but back in my younger days, And so I have endless appetite for watching amateur spinners honkered over their MPCs, pounding out homemade beats. But this infinite variety also works

against TikTok. I believe you see. The algorithm is like this machine gun with incredible aim, mowing down every interest I have. But here's the thing. Sometimes I'm in the mood for biking videos. Sometimes I want to listen to the DJs. Sometimes I want memes. But TikTok doesn't hand me a menu of my favorite subjects and ask me which one I like. As powerful as its algorithm is, it insists on pushing everything I like to me indiscriminately

in one feed. As amazing as TikTok has been its sucking the wind out of TV, it falls short for me by not taking TV's more channel centric approach. It's made me visualized. TikTok is like one big, unprecedentedly powerful pipe. At one end of the pipe, it draws from a veritable ocean of content choices, somehow hoovering out of that ocean just the things I like with astonishing speed and accuracy.

But what's not remarked upon as much is the other end of the pipe is just this hydrant blast when what I'd rather have as a ux that knowing what I'd like separates each droplet, so to speak, into separate categories. Yes, I could go into TikTok account settings and adjust the topic bars, but those aren't my topic labels, And even if they were, why not bring that topic orientation to the front of the TikTok ux instead of hiding it away. But in the scheme of the bounty TikTok brings, maybe

that's just a quibble. When I'm thumbing constantly, it reminds me of something I don't do anymore on TV, channel flipping. But what decades ago is treated as a nuisance. The experience of channel flipping, I think, is going to be a mode of viewing in its own right. When the tiktokification of TV truly begins, the manic thumb swiping that is, the modern day version of channel flipping or surfing, will be something we'll actually happily spend time doing, perhaps as

much time as we spend on a long form show. See, I'm starting to put my nostra damas hat on here. I get it. I mean, call me a zealot for my newfound religion. But this format TikTok and its copycats are employing, this isn't just a format for a particular kind of social app I'm convinced this is the evolution of what the personal video experience will be, certainly much more so than a TV's electronic programming guide or the tile soup of choices you have to navigate on the

spot of your choice. I've come to the conclusion that for better or for worse, this is where it's all going where whether you're watching on your phone, and this is where you want to question by sanity larger screens like your living room TV. Yep. Maybe that's the most surprising realization I've had as a TikTok user, that this format it pioneered, that seems so inextricably tied to the mobile device, seems to me not mobile specific at all.

I fully anticipate the TikTok format, right down to all its wonderful esthetic particularity, will seep so thoroughly into TV in the coming years that I won't even be surprised if living room walls start to get adorned by screens that will hang vertically instead of horizontal. The phone could become a remote control for swiping, or maybe the remote control as we know it will lose more than a few buttons to make room for a thumb swipe, and the PayTV and svod UX's will take their cue from

this too. As the line between short and long form video increasingly blurs, perhaps the typical TV future will be more like NTV moving from one music video sized program to another than the current thirty or sixty or one hundred and twenty minute blocks of movie or TV show. I'm not saying are going to go away, but they will seed significant ground to the short form videos in

viewing time. It would be pretty star contrast from today's video platforms, which are entirely separated by the size of the content, though YouTube is clearly leading the charge in erasing that distinction. Though TikTok's bread and butter maybe short form today, I wonder are we really that far away where it will exceed that current ten minute cap it has on video and start to home in on Netflix's territory.

Of course, that could also go vice versa, and we've seen streaming services do some experimentation with short form content, though nothing notable to date. But I think where this is all going is that the short form content, it won't just coexist with long form content on the same platforms, but it will become a springboard into long form. This takes me back to the Warner Brothers research I spoke

about earlier. I just think this is going to become a big driver, but I think it'll get mechanized, so to speak. Like you'll watch a clip of White Lotus if you like it, it will have a button linking you to a long form episode two, and I'd say that would go for the rest of TV two. But I think there will be a lot of TV program brands that will actually minimize or cease to exist in

any long form container. The advertising market will catch up to a point where, say Stephen Colbert's show will cease to exist as an hour long show, existing instead is a series of short form segments. I really believe this is going to happen just as soon as the advertising market catches up. Speaking of advertising, as we head towards the upfront season in the TV industry, there is a lot of talk about YouTube as the new TV, and

rightfully so. The notion that TV viewing has exceeded mobile viewing in the US, as the company recently announced, that's a staggering achievement. Truth be told, I cannot understand why TikTok hasn't made a stronger bid for TV domination, like team up with a TV manufacturer to make a linked line of TikTok TVs. I wonder whether that's going to end up a fatal flaw too late to correct. If TikTok is not careful they're inviting one of their copycats

to seize that opportunity. As much as I've said so far, I feel like I'm really just scratching the surface of how TikTok's clip scroll format will become the future. Hell, I haven't even addressed the e current e commerce element of TikTok, which end up which may end up the most game changing contribution the act makes, given the early success of TikTok Shop, breathless as I'm being look, I'm mindful of the fact that I'm just six months into

my TikTok experience. Perhaps there's a honeymoon period and in time I will tire of the clip scroll format, or something better that's not even on the market yet will come along and revolutionize the video delivery space all over again. Yeah, I'm looking at you.

all the more unlikely. And what was I doing on this app at my age? I'm so preoccupied by that, And so I researched TikTok demographic data just to see how unusual that was. Research firm Data Reportal estimates that four point three percent of TikTok users are men between the ages of forty five and fifty four. So, no, I guess I don't have a lot of company. Maybe this is my version of a midlife crisis. I mean, most middle aged men by a convertible or get an earring.

I use TikTok. I'm not sure what's more pathetic, But now I choose to look at it differently. I rationalize that I'm really more like an early adopter among the olds, the first wave of a broader demographic shift that will transform the demographic makeup of these clip scrolling apps, maybe drive more product evolution that makes these platforms even more welcoming to Generation X and even the boomers. For now, though, I'm just one old man who happens to have become TikTok's newest fan.