TikTok Isn't Your Life Coach Helping You Make Decisions
23 Aug 2025 #misc“I saw it on TikTok,” she told me.
I was making small talk with a young girl at a hospital. She wanted to join the military. I asked her why, in a curious way. “It keeps appearing on my TikTok.”
A couple of days ago, she watched one short of another young girl leading a female squad running around a military base. She kept seeing the same videos since then. “Of course, the more videos you watch…they will keep popping up,” I said.
If you stop your endless scrolling to watch a short, the algorithm will flood you with more. “Hey, she just watched the whole short, we’d be better off showing her similar content. She seems to like that type of content.” That’s what TikTok would think. Its job is to exploit our attention and keep us in the same echo chamber.
Don’t make a decision just because TikTok keeps showing you the same videos. That’s not a sign from the Universe. That’s not guidance either. It’s manipulation.