How does TikTok’s uncanny algorithm decide what you see? We tested it on three people

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/06/tiktok-alogrithm-experiment-new-accounts

Version 0 of 1.

A week-long experiment by the Guardian showcased how widely each person’s experience and ‘For You’ page varied

Dance videos, viral pranks, adorable pets, beauty tutorials and 60-second recipes. A scroll through TikTok’s “For You” page offers a steady stream of strange and delightful content that can feel both chaotic and somehow perfectly suited to your tastes.

But how exactly does TikTok’s algorithm decide what to serve up, and why do you get that eerie feeling it knows you better than you know yourself?

TikTok’s algorithm is famously effective, yet hard to study. As part of the Guardian’s special series on the platform’s explosive rise, we tested how the algorithm treats different users. We wondered what would happen if three people – with varying ages, backgrounds and familiarity with the platform – created new accounts and recorded what they saw.

We asked our participants to apply the same rules:

Create a brand new account using their real identities (even if they already had one)

Open their “For You” page at the same time every morning

Make a note of the first 10 videos the algorithm served up

Repeat for seven days

Create a brand new account using their real identities (even if they already had one)

Open their “For You” page at the same time every morning

Make a note of the first 10 videos the algorithm served up

Repeat for seven days

What else they did during the week-long experiment was up to them. They could follow accounts, post content or like other videos (some did, others didn’t). We wanted to observe how the “For You” page changed over time, and what assumptions TikTok may have made about them.

While the results aren’t scientific, they offer a look at how the TikTok experience varies from person to person – raising questions about how this influential platform shapes our views, information ecosystems and engagement with others.

The following interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

The college student: ‘I got bombarded with 12-year-old boy humor’

Wajiha Wohid, a 19-year-old student living in Berkeley, California, is a regular Instagram and occasional Snapchat user. Recently, she says, TikTok has taken over. “Its much more fast-paced,” Wohid says. “I feel like my attention span has decreased significantly and I don’t think that’s good for me.” Still, she spends a lot of time on the platform following creators she likes, keeping up with the news and finding out what’s going on in the world.

On her first days using the new account: I’m not gonna lie, I glanced at my “For You” page and I was like – I don’t like this. There were a lot of things that felt like 12-year-old boy humor to me. There were prank videos, like the napkin trend where they rip someone’s shirt [to use it as a napkin]. I never like those.

This article includes content provided by TikTok. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'.

I followed some creators I like and friends I regularly interact with, so after about five days the algorithm started catching on.

I’m very intentional [on my main TikTok account and on social media in general] about what I’m liking, because of algorithms. I want to curate my feed to my interests. So there are times where I’m like, yeah that’s funny, but I’m just not going to “like” that right now because I don’t want more of it. So I would say it wasn’t until the last two days that I was really enjoying what I saw [on TikTok] consistently.

On the videos that stuck out, good and bad: There was a pretty relatable video about hitting the curb every time you drive. I liked that.

There’s also this viral audio using a snippet of the song Forget by Pogo. Basically, the videos show people dodging something from side-to-side in time with the song. I watched that for hours.

I love the Corn Boy. I used to binge watch those videos on my main account, but even though I didn’t do that on this account, his videos started showing up.

I’d sum up the week as a lot of prank videos and 12-year-old-boy humor at the beginning. Then there was also a lot of Muslim content because of the people I followed, some Desi Muslim content [content for south Asian Muslims].

Also, I don’t know if TikTok has just moved away from this, but I never get dance videos.

On the algorithm’s assumptions: I don’t think it was able to tell I was Desi. I think it figured out I am Muslim, because it was showing me a lot of Muslim content creators and, like, Muslim-relatable things, but I get a lot more south Asian content on my main account.

There was a certain point where I was like, oh, it knows I’m the eldest daughter. But then the next day it showed me like a video about being the youngest sibling. There were also videos about babies from the get-go, which I feel like were aimed towards women, probably because I put in my gender.

Will she stay on TikTok? Yes.

The professional with a family: ‘TikTok classified me as an older-mom type’

Diana Ramirez-Simon, a 45-year-old copy editor for the Guardian US, spends time on social media for work (Twitter) and for leisure (she’s a member of several crocheting groups on Facebook). TikTok wasn’t entirely new to her; she got her first account at the insistence of nephews and nieces, and even lets her kids watch along with her (though she filters what they see).

While she enjoys it, she also worries about the impact of social media on children and the dominnt role it plays in their daily lives. “I feels like watching TikTok has replaced the bedtime story,” she says.

On her first few days: I saw a very strange video of stick figures, where one committed suicide. I was surprised that it made it on to the platform and into my feed.

Otherwise I got your typical viral videos, stupid jokes that you just cannot help but laugh at, dad jokes, as well as cute pets and cooking.

There were some alarming videos that were supposed to be comedy, but felt blatantly racist. Sometimes it was from a person of the same background making jokes about races, which felt like a weird, slippery slope. It made me aware of how easy it is for something that’s perceived as funny to morph into something that’s much worse.

At the same time, I saw jokes like “Mexican moms be like”, and those felt OK because they were demonstrating, for example, how a Mexican mom can flip a tortilla on the stovetop with her bare hands and it doesn’t hurt them. It was more lighthearted.

On the rest of the week: After the first couple of days it started to show me stuff that was more family friendly. It did make me wonder what the algorithm scrapes from your profile for information, or if it takes into account any information outside the app - how does it understand that I have kids and that I live in the Bay Area?

On the assumptions the algorithm made: It was interesting that the cooking content showed up without me prompting anything. I wonder if I have been classified as an older-mom type. Most of the videos were targeted for busy moms, or recipes you can make in just half an hour, things like that. There was a woman making on-the-go breakfast sandwiches, and my son saw it and said it looked good. I really struggle to get him to eat breakfast so I saved the recipe to use later – so I guess I got something out of it.

It also started showing me a lot of Asian content, and I don’t know why. Perhaps it is taking cues from other social platforms – like when I have posted stories on Instagram or Twitter about anti-Asian violence stories from the Guardian. If you go through my social media accounts you can see I am definitely not Asian, so maybe it was just trying to gauge what I react to.

Staying on TikTok? Yes, but I will filter it if I’m sitting with my kids and I don’t feel uncomfortable about what they are seeing.

The retired, first-time TikTok user: ‘A lot of videos seemed designed to provoke anger or fear’

David Levin, a 63-year-old retired teacher and artist living in New York City, had never used TikTok before this experiment. (“On an awareness scale of one to 10, I was probably a three,” he says).

He’d spend a lot of time on Instagram though, where he posts his art and photography and amassed more than 2,500 followers. He was interested to find out how the two platforms differed. “I thought that TikTok users skewed hipper and younger, and that Instagram was basically turning into your mother and father’s TikTok,” he says.

On his first few days: I decided not to follow any accounts and just be a blank slate. The first few days were a really mixed bag of different genres. There was a lot of humorous stuff – parodies and prank-type things. Nature, animals and educational videos, some science tricks.

Then there were a lot of videos that felt designed to provoke an emotional reaction. Videos that made me think of the old New York Post idiom – that every headline was designed to appeal to one of two emotions: fear or anger.

It felt like some of the videos were playing into potentially racist tropes, or where it just felt like the goal was portraying Black people in misery. One video was of a Black mother who took her kid’s phone away and the kid went insane and destroyed the whole apartment. She was walking from room to room and everything was smashed. It just had a weird, painful vibe. It made me think, who are we talking to here?

Another one was of a Black woman being held in a store by a security guard who says she was shoplifting. She’s been accused of hiding something in her underpants. It’s a long video of her saying: “I’ve got nothing in there.” It’s hard to watch.

Another that felt designed to provoke outrage was of this guy outside a grocery store, and he is trying to get a white woman to buy him something. She refuses and then the next guy behind her buys it for him instead, and then she gets angry when she learns it was a social experiment. It felt like an ethical test that exposes her as a quintessential gross American.

On the plus side there was a very sweet video of a mom doing her child’s hair and the child seems to be exploring their gender and the mom was giving them positive encouragement.

On the algorithm’s assumptions: Maybe that I live in New York City? A lot of what I got was pretty urban in terms of stories and settings.

There’s an underlying negativity to a lot of the videos, though I guess it depends how you view it. I was closer to crying when watching some, but I’m sure there are people who think it’s funny. And I’m aware that I’m looking at it through the lens of someone who is not the target TikTok audience.

Overall I’d describe the week as fairly random, I’d say about 60% of the videos felt more on the negative side, but of course those ones stick out. It feels like they threw me the same combination of different stuff: guy telling dad jokes, science tricks, pranks, freestyle rapping on the beach.

I got very few dance videos, two or three. I thought I’d get more! Maybe they knew that I can’t stand that kind of stuff. I didn’t get any news misinformation and nothing on politics, but I didn’t see anyone doing anything to counter it either.

Keep using TikTok? The “tabula rasa” nature of this experiment really excited me; it’s a unique opportunity to go on to a platform with no history. It’s an experiment I’m going to continue.