Technology

The matches imitate a video game. Two TikTokers stream side-by-side, divided into "red" and "blue" teams. As a timer counts down from five minutes, they go to wild and kooky lengths to get their fans to send them these gifts.

The creativity to create things like these battles is interesting

We really are fleshy machines that just need our buttons pushed the right way to get us to obsess over almost anything

You’d get more utility from lighting 25k on fire. What the fuck.

Fool = Easily parted money

It’s a lot of money don’t get me wrong but I kind of expected more. Some twitch streamers (mainly softcore porn streamers) get an absolute fuckload from some donors. Talking 50k+ from one person, they’re usually as a joke called oil princes

Hard to have sympathy for this woman, but these TikTok battles where they basically have influencers competing to see who can get their followers to donate more money to TikTok do seem pretty fucked up.

Instead of traveling the world, that lady instead waste a ton of money on Chinese manipulated show. Unbelievable.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

White, a 65-year-old former insurance investigator who lives alone in Burlington County, New Jersey, spent the year she retired traveling — dining in Dubai, sipping cocktails by the sea in Montego Bay, Jamaica, or strolling among monks in Kathmandu, Nepal.

These design strategies, collectively referred to as "dark patterns," because of their potential to manipulate user behavior, pair with the power of parasocial relationships that viewers develop with influencers, who also encourage their fans to spend generously.

While lawmakers are catching up with manipulative design tactics in applications and websites — California recently banned some dark patterns in an update to the state's digital-privacy legislation — the regulatory framework overseeing how companies use such elements is still limited.

Greg Dickinson, a professor from St. Thomas University's College of Law in Miami, said it's easier to regulate firms that use dark patterns to create obstacles to unsubscribing from a service — similar to how the popular diet app Noom settled a $56 million lawsuit for doing just that.

There was J-Hop, a baseball-cap-clad thirst-trapper who often showed off his tattoo sleeves; PrettyBoyAli, an influencer known for throwing comedic insults at his opponents and hyping up his gifters with a signature booming, baritone voice; and Rick Brown, a 54-year-old former tech executive who streamed from exotic locations in Thailand and created digital portraits of other streamers as he battled them.

To help wean herself off, she switched to tapping on the battle screen, sending a flurry of tiny heart emojis fluttering up the side of the feed at no cost or buying roses, the cheapest TikTok gift.

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