Normally TikTok give when you have had their heart-broken?
Try not to query myself as to the reasons. But while i seated back at my bed room floor, ringing ears on the echoes off my now-ex-boyfriend’s shaky sound advising me the guy wanted to break things away from, We decreased my personal cell phone and you will, immediately following punctually purging they of all the evidence of my defunct matchmaking, exposed TikTok.
Immediately the For You Page, blissfully unaware of what had just happened, served me with videos off a few lovable gays filming an adorable skit for its lovable people page. Clearly, despite their 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 Mickey away from 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 question how much time it can use the formula to help you suss aside exactly what had occurred on the other side regarding the fresh new screen (tl;dr boyfriend: went, heart: broken) and you can punt me back to #SingleTok where I belonged. And so i developed a straightforward test: Daily I’d go on TikTok and browse the latest FYP for around half an hour, overlooking relationship-themed blogs and twice-scraping anything to do having breakups or becoming single. Along the way I’d check out some other methods to nudge the latest app about proper guidelines. With a little chance, I would have the ability to return my personal offer so you’re able to a time in which I won’t must hurl my cell phone across the room. I can handle losing the latest date, but We was not going to let TikTok forgo a battle.
Date 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 Hill 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 «when your date,» three couples bragging regarding their gender 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.
Big date A couple of
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 being provided for the and away from skits in the spooning, TikTok wasn’t hearing me.