If you’re like me, you use the Internet for getting news, reading email and watching cat videos. Guess what? We’re no longer in the mainstream of Internet users.
There’s a whole new world online that most of us have never really seen. And the current leader in this online world is TikTok. In fact, the TikTok app has 2.5 billion downloads worldwide and ranks number one in Apple's App Store in terms of worldwide downloads. TikTok is a video social networking site sort of like a combination of YouTube and Facebook. Users create short videos of 3 minutes or less that typically show pranks, jokes, tricks or entertainment.
Who is downloading and using TikTok? 69% of TikTok users are between 16 and 24 years old and a majority of all users in the US are women. More than a billion videos are watched daily. The average user opens the TikTok app eight times a day and spends 52 minutes a day viewing videos. WOW!
But there’s another aspect of TikTok that you may not know. There are TikTok “influencers” who make videos and who have massive followings. TikTok sells ads that appear on these videos and, as a result, influencers can make amazing amounts of money from these ads. So much money that some are as highly paid as some Fortune 500 CEOs.
For example, Charli D’Amelio posts videos of herself dancing. She made $17.5 million last year, according to Forbes. She also has 133 million followers! Charli’s big sister Dixie is a pop singer who made $10 million and has 57 million followers.
As a point of reference, Darren Woods, the CEO of Exxon Mobil had a salary of $15.6 million in 2020 and Chris Kempczinski who runs McDonald’s made $10.8 million.
Being an influencer is nice work if you can get it!
TikTok is a platform for influencers to launch themselves, and that includes signing lucrative marketing deals. For example, Dixie D’Amelio has signed Hollister, Hulu and Snap as sponsors. Some influencers like Addison Rae ($8.5 million, 86 million followers) have created beauty product lines.
No list of influencers would be complete without the reigning queen of social influencers, Kylie Jenner, who became the highest paid celebrity of 2020, earning $590 million. And Kylie did this without TikTok but, like the other Kardashians, by just being famous for being famous. And having a really shrewd mind for business.
So, I guess I should just stop watching Russian car crash videos on YouTube and start making TikTok videos of me sitting on my butt watching Russian car crash videos. I’ll be RICH! You think?
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Should You Install (or Uninstall) the TikTok App**?
Several years ago, there was a brouhaha about TikTok. Government intelligence agencies were strongly advocating that the app be banned from the US. In fact, India did ban the app. Here’s what some government and tech leaders have to say about the app:
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a congressional leader in regulating big tech and holding it accountable for ethics violations, explained congressional disconcertment regarding the app: "Here's the problem: It's owned by a Chinese company, and under Chinese law, that means the Communist Party has access to all of the data that TikTok scoops up," he said in December. "And it scoops up a lot, like your phone book, like what you do on your phone, it tracks you around the web, maybe your text messages. It's dangerous."
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman called TikTok "spyware" at a one-day conference called "Social 2030"…..saying, "I look at that app as so fundamentally parasitic — that it’s always listening. The fingerprinting technology they use is truly terrifying, and I could not bring myself to install an app like that on my phone." He added that he "actively" tells people not to install the app on their phones.
Forbes seems to think so. So does The Reader’s Digest, and so do many others.
But, you decide for you.
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KN95 vs N95: What’s the Difference?
We keep hearing about suggestions that we use KN95 or N95 respirators (masks) to avoid Covid-19. The CDC has finally deemed that cloth masks are not effective in preventing Covid. Harvard is not too thrilled about them either.
But you should note that only N95 respirators are approved for medical use in the US. KN95 respirators follow a different Chinese standard and are not.
Considering the origin of Covid-19, perhaps we should not place a lot of trust in any Chinese standards?
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Now This is a Cool Sendoff!
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* Ok, I borrowed the title from “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.
** Watching videos that you get in email or in a text are in a standard format like .mp4 or .mov and are not a danger.
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Why play with danger?
I’ve made a few with the kids, I deleted the app tho, time flies when your on it. ✌️