Over the past few months I’ve had the opportunity to speak to hundreds of people about the ideas in my book Digital Liturgies. Most of these speaking engagements have featured a Q/A time. One question in particular that has come up more than once is this:
Let’s keep going with the cocaine analogy. You don’t reach an audience on TikTok without participating in cocaine production. Who wants to make the argument that Christians should be synthesizing meth so they can reach the destitute meth addicts?
The response would probably be that Christians cannot help manufacture the drugs, but they should be living and ministering among those who are taking them. The key question is: To what extent is membership in a social media platform a de facto participation in its effects?
So glad I have never used TikTok! And one cannot forget the link to the Chinese government as well. I am reluctantly on WhatsApp, to communicate to godchildren, but otherwise avoid these things like the plague!
This is incredibly kind and thoughtful. TikTok is dramatically different than “social media.” It’s the very worst parts of social media plus mindless TV watching.
I recently wrote about my experiences with my own kids and iPads - and I call YouTube Kids “weaponized disengagement,” despite most parents thinking it’s “just fine.”
Nearly all publishing executives say that BookTok has a big influence on sales. I'm not in a position to confirm or deny that, because the kind of books and authors my employer publishes are not what you'd consider TikTok influencers.
I am a little suspicious that BookTok's imprint is very top heavy. It's probably a situation where the top 5% of accounts pushing a book really does make a big impact on sales. But that's generally true for all social media. If the "middle class" of TikTok accounts really does have a discernible impact on sales, I would be surprised, but I suppose that's possible.
I would also be interested in any data that explores what *kind* of books benefit the most from BookTok. My guess is: trade fiction and self-help are the big categories, and there's a huge dropoff after them. And again, those are two categories that a lot of Christian writers aren't going to be aiming for, so I would be very skeptical of any argument that said if you're an aspiring author you need to be using TikTok.
While I agree that Tiktok is uniquely bad, that children between the ages of five and seven are accessing it is less an indictment of Tiktok or its makers and more an indictment of their parents. Why are they providing children of that age with the means to access such apps to begin with?
That's true, of course, but digital platforms are usually popular among demographics that are being consciously targeted. For all its problems, Twitter doesn't have a "kid version" of its app the way TikTok does. https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/tiktok-for-younger-users
Let’s keep going with the cocaine analogy. You don’t reach an audience on TikTok without participating in cocaine production. Who wants to make the argument that Christians should be synthesizing meth so they can reach the destitute meth addicts?
The response would probably be that Christians cannot help manufacture the drugs, but they should be living and ministering among those who are taking them. The key question is: To what extent is membership in a social media platform a de facto participation in its effects?
So glad I have never used TikTok! And one cannot forget the link to the Chinese government as well. I am reluctantly on WhatsApp, to communicate to godchildren, but otherwise avoid these things like the plague!
This is incredibly kind and thoughtful. TikTok is dramatically different than “social media.” It’s the very worst parts of social media plus mindless TV watching.
I recently wrote about my experiences with my own kids and iPads - and I call YouTube Kids “weaponized disengagement,” despite most parents thinking it’s “just fine.”
https://alecmcnayr.substack.com/p/screens-kids-and-pablo-picasso
What are your thoughts on #BookTok and its impact on the publishing industry?
Nearly all publishing executives say that BookTok has a big influence on sales. I'm not in a position to confirm or deny that, because the kind of books and authors my employer publishes are not what you'd consider TikTok influencers.
I am a little suspicious that BookTok's imprint is very top heavy. It's probably a situation where the top 5% of accounts pushing a book really does make a big impact on sales. But that's generally true for all social media. If the "middle class" of TikTok accounts really does have a discernible impact on sales, I would be surprised, but I suppose that's possible.
I would also be interested in any data that explores what *kind* of books benefit the most from BookTok. My guess is: trade fiction and self-help are the big categories, and there's a huge dropoff after them. And again, those are two categories that a lot of Christian writers aren't going to be aiming for, so I would be very skeptical of any argument that said if you're an aspiring author you need to be using TikTok.
That’s helpful to know!
While I agree that Tiktok is uniquely bad, that children between the ages of five and seven are accessing it is less an indictment of Tiktok or its makers and more an indictment of their parents. Why are they providing children of that age with the means to access such apps to begin with?
That's true, of course, but digital platforms are usually popular among demographics that are being consciously targeted. For all its problems, Twitter doesn't have a "kid version" of its app the way TikTok does. https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/tiktok-for-younger-users