“It’s a crazy story,” says François*, 33 years old. While someone close to me underwent an operation requiring them to wear a very specific medical device for a while, my TikTok feed offered me videos of influencers who were going through the same thing and who were giving popular speeches on this ultra-specific subject. However, I have never done any research on this on the platform and I had never seen any videos on this subject before the operation. I came to wonder if the algorithm was sending me messages. »
“Doctor TikTok sees into the future and brings back your loved one”
Halfway between wonder and paranoia, it is very possible that you have already read or heard this type of testimony. In the same way that we constantly have the impression that Instagram is listening to us, TikTok leaves all its users with a strange impression; that the platform knows us better than ourselves and that its algorithm sends us content which resonates very strongly with our private lives, to the point that it would play a role of divination.
In the media, many articles echo these funny coincidences, similar to Jungian synchronicities. In June 2021, GQ journalist Louis Hanson already found it strange the fact that the platform suggested videos to him on microbehaviors that he thought he was the only one to have, such as, for example, pretending to be surprised when a waiter brings him a dish at a restaurant.
(to be continued)
