Periodically I’ll come across someone saying how they learn so much on TikTok or get so much out of it, and I’ll feel obliged to yet again make an effort to use it as I imagine a typical person does. I open it up and try to start watching with a Chauncey Gardiner–like blankness, ready to go willingly wherever its algorithm wants to take me. But impatience sets in almost immediately. I begin to swipe and swipe, not necessarily because I’m bored with a particular video or disturbed by the jarring music and stilted voices (which are very disturbing to me) but because swiping is more engaging than not swiping. I begin to feel like I am wrestling with the algorithm for the remote control, and I’m not sure if I am winning or losing.
Chauncey Gardiner. Love it. Now I have rewatch Being There.