ok I wanna talk about these posts
Now I don't wanna say these posts are wrong or that I disagree with them, but they are only two of many that I see in a similar vein and my general take is: We need to change the way we have this conversation.
Because yes. It is true that young people get indoctrinated on TikTok (and other platforms including tumblr!) in the same way older generations get indoctrinated through FOX News or Facebook.
But we can't let these conversations always start and stop with "these groups are gullible and THIS vague entity is responsible for it and I am so smart for realising this and they're stupid for not realising it".
We need to finally start solution-oriented conversations. We need people who don't just point at the problem but actually talk about how we can fix it.
TikTok has an issue with misinformation that users don't have the tools to recognise?
Well here's a list of only a few of the TikTok accounts that fight this issue right on the platform where they can get these users' attention.
All of these, to varying degrees, correct misinformation and/or provide tools to promote media literacy. Some even want to help change the platform altogether.
I know not everyone who wants to help can do things like this, but a good place to start helping change things would be to support these accounts and all the other people out there doing what they do. Most of them are on other platforms or have websites (or Patreon/Ko-Fi/etc bc monetary support for these efforts is important too) if you don't wanna get a TikTok account to help them get more attention.
And here is a Masterpost where I collect resources for how to improve your own media literacy and how to help others do the same (and I promise you, no matter how smart or skilled or media-literate you think you are, you will learn something new from these). This masterpost is updated regularly and includes a longer list of TikTok users to follow as well.
So next time you see a post like this about how stupid TikTok users are for falling for conspiracies or how Facebook is nothing but fake news or whatever, think about whether the post is actually helping in some way or only trying to make tumblr users feel superior over others, and maybe try to share something you learned here instead.