How Quick Can TikTok's Algorithm Get To Know You?

TikTok's algorithm has become the subject of many users' curiosity. Many people have expressed concern over whether the app is stealing personal information or how well it knows them. On the other hand, many users are intrigued by how curated their "for you page" has become the more they use the app. TikTok operates on a recommendation system, with several factors such as user interaction, who the user follows, and personal information affecting what content the system will promote. I started with a blank slate to test how long the recommendation engine takes to get to know each user and what content the algorithm will recommend with or without certain factors. I created two new TikTok accounts, both of which have all my personal information inputted, meaning my age, location, gender, and all the stuff social media platforms ask when you create an account. I scrolled through ten videos on each of these accounts for a week, but I only interacted on one of them. On the first account, I would watch the ten videos as I usually would, liking the videos that I particularly enjoyed, scrolling past ones I didn't care about, and hitting the uninterested button when I found a video harmful or annoying. On the other account, I would watch each of the ten videos in their entirety and would not like, comment, or share the video; I did not interact. Below is my journal of each day and how my "for you page" progressed throughout the week:

Account 1: Linked to my Twitter: scrolled through ten videos, watched all once through, didn't like, share or interact with them.

Account 2: Linked to my school email account, scrolled through ten videos, watched each for however long I wanted, interacted with each how I usually would, liking some videos, marking disinterested on others.

Day 1: Four of the videos overlapped between the two accounts, and the same Del Taco ad popped up. White girls of college-age made the majority of the videos, some were slightly sexual, and an audio was repeated twice on the Twitter account.

Day 2: Only one of the videos overlapped. The account that I did not interact with featured mostly longer videos that I would typically scroll past(most of which were clips of longer youtube videos encouraging viewers to watch the full video on their channel). On the account I interact with, I tend to scroll past any video longer than 30 seconds to 1 minute (except a three-minute-long satisfying car cleaning TikTok I stuck around for). I found that most of the videos on account 1 were made by male creators, while on account 2, they were primarily female creators. Account 2 featured "satisfying" cleaning/artsy-type videos and cute baby/animal videos, while account 1 featured mostly cheap internet comedy and reaction videos.

Day 3: On account 1, I noticed four out of the ten videos I watched were created by "verified" creators, three of which were well-known celebrities. Once again, the videos were longer videos that I would generally scroll past, one of them was a clip of a youtube show, and one was a clip of a tv show. The other videos were shorter comedy videos. On account 2, I saw two of the same comedy videos present on account 1, both of which I scrolled past this time. I also saw the same clip of a tv show, which I scrolled past. I noticed more cooking and craft videos, and also, two of the ten videos were in Spanish. I also had one dieting video pop up. I scrolled past almost all of the videos without entirely watching them and didn't like or share any.

Day 4: Account 1 featured a few cooking/food-related videos, several longer-style comedy videos, and the same dieting video I saw on account 2 the previous day. The array of creators on account 1's fyp today was pretty diverse in terms of race, gender, age, and content style; however, most of the videos were created by women, and many by young white women. On account 2, I again saw a few crafty-type videos and "satisfying" videos. I also saw one of the videos by a celebrity that I saw the previous day on account 1. The videos on account 2 seem to be made generally by slightly older creators than on account 2, but still primarily by white women.

Day 5: Account 1 again promoted mostly white women around college-aged or were videos made by men about women. There were fewer videos by verified creators than usual, and per usual, all the videos were uncontroversial and universally enjoyable. The videos were also somewhat shorter than normal, as I used to get a lot of three-minute-long TikToks. Account 2 featured two videos in Spanish and a couple of animal/pet videos. Again, account 2 mainly featured women, all of whom were pretty young.

Day 6: On both accounts 1 and 2, the same dieting video popped up, of which I clicked disinterested on account 2. White creators made eight out of the ten videos on account 1, and one was an animated comedy video including racial stereotypes. Most of the videos were a comedy, and most were also scripted or heavily edited videos. On account 2, two of the TikToks recommended to me were in Spanish, two were comedy videos relating to the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial, and the remaining videos were relatively wholesome short comedy videos. Still, most creators I've seen on both accounts have been white and around my age. I've also noticed that I get more advertisements on account 2.

Day 7: On account 1, I noticed a greater diversity of creators and content, although most of the creators were still around my general age. The first video that popped up on account 1 played on racial stereotypes about Asians and was once again a clip of a longer youtube video. Account 1's feed mainly consisted of scripted comedy videos, two of which I had seen on account 2 yesterday. All in all, account 1 still consisted of relatively benign, uncontroversial content that could be appealing to many demographics that tend to populate the app. On account 2, I noticed less content diversity. I had multiple videos of animals and babies and two videos about the Johnny Depp trial, which I've been casually following here and there. The creator diversity was comparable to account 1 today, and I also had one video in Spanish.

Conclusion: My most significant observation from the week is that the baseline videos that TikTok tends to recommend are usually by established creators and feature universally agreeable content. I also noticed that my feed on account 2 wasn't similar to my regular TikTok feed, despite interacting normally with account 2. That being said, I did find account 2 slightly more enjoyable and personalized; however, it's possible that the experience was more enjoyable because I didn't have to sit through any long videos that didn't catch my attention. Based on my personal information inputted when setting up both accounts, I assume that TikTok either recommended mostly videos created by people around my age purposefully, or most TikTok creators just tend to be college-aged.