I got algorithm, I got music, who could ask for anything more?

Man, internet algorithms are mind-numbingly complicated, ridiculously random, and just plain dumb. They make absolutely no sense whatsoever, and unless it really is all just about paying a social media site to boost your posts, then your “reach” is simply at the whims of algorithmic overlords, possibly by this point even AI.

I created a TikTok account that launched on June 18, so I’ve been active there just over 2 months. I figured I would use that site to hopefully direct traffic to my Patreon page, and thus basically set out like a bumbling neophyte to simply share videos of myself singing and playing. I have since started several different video series, and am working behind the scenes to launch several more upcoming projects.

What I didn’t count on was not only falling in love with TikTok, but also surprisingly finding myself going through the motions and doing the research to figure out how to actually USE the app as intended. (You’ll see exactly what I mean when these upcoming projects go live!) Anyone who knows me will attest to how much I HATE doing all this kind of “computery stuff,” and how impatient and impetuous I am when dealing with technology. But since I don’t have a full-time job right now, I have found myself with a good bit of time to actually dive into this website — and with surprising results. To be sure, TikTok is very user friendly and provides much of the material for digital creators such as sounds, filters, and visual effects, but as I said, I feel like I’ve excelled in a very short time — which you could witness if you were to start with my first post and follow my journey in strict chronological order.   

To illustrate what I mean, check out this video before you continue reading.

PAUSE

I saw this poor woman stumbling around high on something this past Thursday night in my neighborhood, and thought, “This is the kind of human behavior that seems to garner a lot of humorous attention and traction on the internet!” With just one hour’s worth of work, I arrived on the perfect soundtrack accompaniment — and then added the special effects, which are many, diverse, visually alluring and, if I may humbly say so, illustrate at least a novice mastery of the platform. Every single effect included (and their timing) was my idea, and the actual film footage was my doing as well, producing a fun late night product that is the fruit of MY creative juices. I honestly thought this one might actually crack the code. I see these types of “ridiculous human behavior” videos ALL over the internet, and figured surely this would attract an audience — and, thus, eventually “get my name out there” a bit more and drive some traffic to my Patreon.

REWIND

To hone in on my issue with the algorithms, let’s step back a mere 8 hours. Earlier that very same day, I posted Episode 11 of an 18-video series I recently launched entitled “How to Fix NYC” — basically a video series that spells out my complaints with NYC (you can find this below, if you missed it and want to catch up). As of this writing, that video has 361 views, 32 likes, and 10 comments.

Two of the previous series videos were actually tagged by someone on TikTok to include the following folks: The New York Times, The New York Post, New York Times Opinions, ABC7NY, New Yorkers, @newyorkcity, and @Watching New York — as well as Estee (535K followers), Sienna Hubert Ross (285K followers), Billy Eichner (1.6M followers) and, of all people, the infamous ubiquitous comedian Andrew Dice Clay. (I’ve also posted a few movie clips with viewerships in the 800s — those seem to do the best for whatever reason?) But of those 11 series videos posted so far, the view counts range between a low viewership of 80 and that top count of 361. And with that 361-view video having gained that much traction in such a short time, I figured the super creative video linked above — which actually illustrates artistic digital talent — might just take off!

As of this afternoon, it has a whopping 5 views.

Someone please make it make sense.   

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