“TikTok stole the “PoV” annotation from porn because that’s what that website is, along with all its mimics. Every TikTok content creator pornographs their own subjectivity. This is because—just as porn isolates then stimulates erotic sensation—the format of a TikTok (or any “first person” video on any site for that matter) isolates then stimulates the primary emotion. A depression video about solidarity with other depressed users isolates your sadness and then brings it into being. The video evokes one’s more depressive feelings and then asks, “Feel this depression with me.” Likewise, a video of somebody getting jumped captioned with “Random stranger gets assaulted by group of teenagers!” evokes anger and demands that you feel angry. But nothing else happens. You get sad, you get mad, you get horny—nothing happens. You don’t seek comfort or change your surroundings, you don’t bring about justice, you don’t court a significant other. You just sit there, stand there, frozen in someone else’s moment.”
Trying to publish artefacts from the things I work on. Mostly design and software, focused on interfaces that are practical and flexible.
Also a reading log.
By Judah, one of the creators of streams.place.