She spent her inheritance sending money to TikTok Livestreamers. What started as a game turned into addiction.

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businessinsider.com

She spent her inheritance sending money to TikTok Livestreamers. What started as a game turned into addiction.::Cindi White spent more than $25,000 on TikTok Influencers. TikTok's Live Matches have a dark side.

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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

It really is interesting and of course kind of sad. She was retired, living alone, a world traveler until the pandemic hit but plunged into isolation after that. While we might think it's silly, I can emphasize with the appeal this might have to someone like that:

Then, seconds before a match ended, she'd hit her favorite creator with a $13 disco ball or a $29 Jet Ski — if she planned it right — just enough to push them over the edge and win.

The chats would erupt into a frenzy, and the streamer and their fans would shower her with praise. "It's like somebody on TV calling out your name, especially if there's over a thousand people in the room," White said. "It really does do something to you. You feel like you're somebody."

I remember my grandma would lock herself in a little room playing Tetris on the Nintendo for literally 8-10 hours a day. I imagine if she had lived to see tik tok, she'd be worse off then the lady in the article.

Hilarious. I can't believe they actually did a Cash War. I watched a Twitch streamer joke about this a few years before Tik Tok existed

Be! Excited! Be, Be Excited!

Edit: To anyone too young to know, or simply out of the loop, this is from Requiem for a Dream. No doubt you recognize that music; the ubiquitous "oh so dramatic" music. That... Was scored for this movie. This was it's original application. There's a reason it's ubiquitous today. Fuck. The gravity of this movie is bringing me to tears rn and I haven't seen it in over a decade. If you haven't seen it, watch it.

Wow even money

We can even obsess over money what an eye opening thought

To scam and steal and do anything for money what a novel idea

Never thought of humans becoming fooled of their money before

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

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.

Tiktok must make a killing. I did the math and the coin packages they offer vs what streamers return rates are means they are pocketing 40 to 60% of the money.

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

Being somewhat in the know, I honestly don't think it's a propaganda tool for the CCP in it's current form and making that claim unsubstantiated doesn't help with credibility. What it is though is direct access to your devices as a spy tool and a massive machine learning data source that the CCP has unfettered access to. Every phone with the app installed is now a potential sensor.

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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