flâneur

#121: TikTok and the elusive promise of reality

substack.com · 2,374 words · saved by 1 readers

Social media’s answer to the uncanny valley.

Good morning! In late spring, I was commissioned by a publication to write a piece about TikTok. When the assigning editor and I first discussed it, I was excited, but by the time I finished it six weeks later, it was high summer, my editor had left the publication, and I wasn’t sure of its fate. Months passed and the piece floundered. A couple times I thought it might run, but eventually I decided to pull it and run it here instead—if not to soothe the month-long headache I had while writing it, then at least to share the thoughts of the brilliant people who gave me interviews for it. The…

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