How TikTok and Twitter are Living Facebook’s Dream

TikTok and Twitter have effectively launched community building features that eclipse Facebook groups in cultivating authentic connection

How TikTok and Twitter are Living Facebook’s Dream

As an information operations strategist, I spend copious amounts of time on social media. My two favorite platforms of choice are, surprisingly, TikTok and Twitter. Both platforms offer venues for in-the-moment connection with people of like minds in ways Facebook (or Meta) can only dream of.

TikTok

Most of you are aware of the addictive nature of scrolling TikTok — you log on at 3pm and don’t log off until midnight with no clue how so much time passed by. The platform incentivizes activity by setting follower count benchmarks to active the ability to go live, offering instant gratification by sharing likes and gifts on lives to help average people build a platform and earn money online, and holding space for not-made-for-mainstream content creators to make abundant amounts of income. I’ve seen TikTok tarot readers make $1–2k a day doing personal readings on TikTok live. One TikTok tarot reader (who is now banned for lewd, crude, and rude content) would do a live stream teaser that led to a private Zoom conference with a fare of $8.88 and 100 open seats, which…