How does TikTok's sinister algorithm decide what you watch? We tested it on three people. (2023)

DDance videos, viral pranks, adorable pets, beauty tutorials, and 60-second recipes. Scrolling through TikTok's "For You" page delivers a constant stream of weird and delicious content that feels cluttered and somehow perfectly suits your tastes.

But how exactly does TikTok work?algorithmDecide what to serve and why do you have the strange feeling that he knows you better than you do?

TikTok's algorithm is known to be effective but difficult to study. as part ofguardian special seriesDuring the explosive rise of the platform, we tested how the algorithm handled different users. We wonder what would happen if three people, of different ages, backgrounds, and familiarity with the platform, created new accounts and recorded what they saw.

We ask our participants to apply the same rules:

• Create a new account with your real identities (even if you already have one)

• Open the For You page at the same time every morning.

• Take into account the first 10 videos that the algorithm shows

• Repeat this 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, some didn't). We wanted to see how the For You page has changed over time and what assumptions TikTok may have made about it.

While the findings are not scientific, they offer insight into how the TikTok experience varies from person to person and raise questions about how this influential platform shapes our opinions, information ecosystems, and our engagement with others.

The following interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

The college student:"I was bombarded with the humor of a 12-year-old"

Wajiha Wohid, a 19-year-old college student from Berkeley, California, is a regular Instagram user and occasional Snapchat user..Recently, he says, TikTok took over. "It's much fasterrhythm,” says Wohid. “I feel like my attention span has decreased significantlyAnd I don't think that's good for me. however shehe spends a lot of time on the platform following the creators he loves, keeping up with the news, and finding out what's going on in the world.

In the first few days with the new account:I won't lie, I took a look at my For You page and thought: I don't like this. There were a lot of things that struck me as 12-year-old humor. there was a jokevideos, Asnapkin trendwhere someone's shirt is ripped [to use as a napkin]. I never liked it

I was following some YouTubers I like and friends I interact with regularly, so the algorithm started working after about five days.

Because of the algorithms, I'm very careful [on my main TikTok account and on social media in general] what I like. I want to organize my feed based on my interests. So there are times when I think, yeah, that's fun, but I'm not going to "like" that now because I don't want it anymore. So I'd say I've really enjoyed what I've been seeing [on TikTok] for the last few days consistently.

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

there's alsothis viral audiowith a fragment of musicforget pogo. Basically, the videos show people jumping up and down to the beat of the music. I watched this for hours.

I love cornboy. I used the Binge Watchvideoson my main account, but even though I didn't do that on that account, their videos started showing up.

I would sum up the week as a bunch of joke and humor videos from the first 12 years. There was also a lot of Muslim content because of the people I was following, some Desi Muslim content [content for South Asian Muslims].

Also, I don't know if TikTok just changed that, but I never get dance videos.

On the assumptions of the algorithm:I don't think I could tell that I was Desi. I think she found out that I am a Muslim because he showed me a lot.Muslim content creatorsand how,things related to muslims, but I get a lot more South Asian content on my main account.

At a certain point I thought, oh, you know, I'm the oldest daughter. But the next day she showed me a video about being the little brother. There were also videos about it.You drinkI feel from the beginning that they are aimed at women, probably because I said my gender.

Does it stay on TikTok?Sim.

The professional with the family:"TikTok marked me as an older mom"

Diana Ramirez-Simon, a 45-year-old editor at The Guardian US, spends time on social media for work (Twitter) and play (she's a member of several Facebook crochet groups). TikTok wasn't entirely new to her; She got the first account of hers at the behest ofnieces and nephews, and he even lets his kids watch (although he leaksis what you see).

While she enjoys it, she is also concerned about the impact of social media on children and dominance.the role it playsyour everyday life. “I feel like watching TikTok has been replacedthe bedtime story,” she says.

In the first days:I saw a very strange video of stick figures committing suicide. I was surprised that it made it to the platform and my feed.

Otherwise I have your typical viral videos, silly jokes you can't help but laugh at, dad jokes, plus cute pets and cooking.

There were some alarming videos that were meant to be comedy but were obviously racist. Sometimes she was a peer making jokes about careers that felt like a weird slippery slope. I realized how easily what is perceived as fun can turn into something much worse.

At the same time, I saw jokes like "that's how Mexican moms are" and they looked good because, for example, they demonstrated how a Mexican mom could flip a tortilla on the stove with her bare hands without getting hurt. it was easier

For the rest of the week:After the first few days, he began to show me more familiar things. I was wondering what information the algorithm pulls from your profile or if you are considering information outside of the app. How do you understand that I have children and live in the Bay Area?

Under the assumptions of the algorithm:It was interesting that the cooking content appeared without me asking for anything. I wonder if they classified me as an older type of mother. Most of the videos were geared towards busy moms or recipes that you can make in just half an hour and the like. There was a woman making sandwiches for breakfast and my son saw it and said she looked good. I'm really struggling to make it for breakfast so I saved the recipe to use later so I think I got something out of this.

It also started showing me a lot of Asian content and I don't know why. Maybe I'm taking cues from other social platforms, like when I posted stories about The Guardian's stories about violence against Asians on Instagram or Twitter. If you look at my social media accounts, you can see that I'm definitely not Asian, so maybe I was just trying to gauge how I would react.

What about TikTok?Yes, but I'll filter when I'm sitting with my kids and I'm not uncomfortable with what they see.

User withdrawn from TikTok for the first time:"Many 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 a conscientious scale of one to ten, I was probably a three,” he says.)

However, she spends a lot of time on Instagram where she posts her art and photography and has amassed over 2,500 followers. He was interested in how the two platforms differed. "I thought TikTok users were more hip and younger and Instagram was basically becoming mom and pop TikTok," he says.

In the first days:I decided not to follow any accounts and just be a blank slate. The beginnings were really a mixture of different genres. There were a lot of funny things: skits and jokes. Nature, animals and educational videos, some science tricks.

Then there were a lot of videos that seemed designed to evoke an emotional response. Videos that made me think of the old New York Post idiom: that every headline should address one of two emotions: fear or anger.

It seemed like some of the videos touched on potentially racist tropes or where it seemed like the goal was to portray Black people as destitute. A video showed a black mother taking her son's phone and her son freaked out and vandalized the entire apartment. He went from room to room and everything was broken. He just had a weird, painful vibe. He got me thinking, who are we talking to here?

Another was of a black woman who was stopped at a store by a security guard who said she had shoplifted. She was accused of hiding something in her panties. It's a long video where she says, "I don't have anything there." It's hard to see.

Another one meant to spark outrage was this guy outside a grocery store trying to get a white woman to buy him something. She refuses and then the next guy after her buys it for her, then gets mad when she finds out it was a social experiment. It felt like an ethical test that exposed her as the quintessential rude American.

On the plus side, there was a really cute video of a mom doing her son's hair and the boy seemed to be exploring his gender and the mom was positively encouraging.

On the assumptions of the algorithm:Maybe I live in New York City? A lot of what I got was quite urban in terms of story and setting.

There is an underlying negativity to a lot of the videos, although I think it depends on how you look at it. Some of them almost bring me to tears, but I'm sure there are people out there who find this funny. And I am aware that I am looking through the lens of someone who is not the target audience for TikTok.

Overall I would describe the week as pretty random, I'd say about 60% of the videos were pretty negative, but of course they stand out. Seems like the same combination of things was thrown at me: guy telling dad jokes, science tricks, pranks, freestyle rapping on the beach.

I have very few dance videos, two or three. I thought I would get more! Perhaps they knew that he couldn't stand this kind of thing. I didn't get any misinformation from the news or about politics, but I also didn't see anyone doing anything about it.

Still using TikTok?The "undescribed" nature of this experiment really got me excited; It is a unique opportunity to step on a platform without history. It is an experience that I will continue.