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By more than two-to-one, Americans support U.S. government banning TikTok from Pew Research
I can't say I'm very surprised but it's more that I assumed it was getting banned either way. I'd be interested to see the trend over time to see if there's been some manufacturing of consent.
I think that sort of support (especially since the GOP is onboard and not playing criticizing) basically gives the government all the cover they need to actually do it but we'll see.
One of the small subthreads of commenting on the recent right-wing victory in Finland (I will hopefully have a longer article on this soon so I haven't commented yet here) is that the right-wing populist Finns Party has a very high youth support, and one reason that's been suggested for this is that they have young politicians who are very adept at creating fast-spreading provocative content (of the "SJWs getting OWNED by facts and logic!" type) on TikTok. If EU starts discussing a TikTok ban as well, I wonder how that would affect this strategy (they'd probably just move to another platform, though).
Given how much platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have been pushing their own versions of portrait-aspect-ratio-short-videos, that's what I'd guess too. The extent to which YouTube has been pushing their "shorts" to me as a viewer has been... almost upsetting, TBH. And from what I've heard, they've been pushing creators to it as well for better overall treatment by "the algorithm," though I take that with a grain of salt. This sort of follow-the-leader effect by TikTok has been by far the worst impact of TikTok I've noticed, as someone who doesn't use that platform.
Tangent: I've never understood the portraitification of everything. Do people not realize smartphones can be turned on their sides? Or that not everyone is viewing content on a smartphone to begin with? Why would anyone want to view something in portrait form?
I can understand the desire. If you're using your phone on public transit or walking, it's significantly more convenient to hold it in portrait mode than in landscape mode. At a minimum, it's more comfortable to the wrist, and due to how big modern phones tend to be (which is a problem in itself; don't get me started about the lack of sub-5" flagship phones, when sub-4" should be the actual standard), the button placement might necessitate the use of 2 hands. For me, I just don't have any interest in watching short 15-60 second videos, portrait or landscape. It seems like a pathway to addiction and constant dissatisfaction over needing the next bite-sized thing, which I get enough of in text form on Twitter.
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It's a lot more clumsy to film stuff in landscape. You have to grab the phone by its edges rather than have it be an extension of your hand (so the shot is more stable and a bit more physically intuitive to "aim") and your fingers easily get in the way of the camera.
And when you're making bite-sized throwaway content, especially when it involves a person (taller than they are wide, usually) I'm not surprised the portrait mode is being used for portrait content.
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