TikTok quietly rolled out a brand new feed for all customers, but it surely’s a little bit onerous to seek out

Have you ever been endlessly scrolling TikTok currently? Nicely, when you’ve got, don’t fret you are not alone. The app, which has thousands and thousands of customers world wide, is understood to be a pretty good time sink. However now, TikTok is trying to reinvent the wheel a bit, by giving all customers entry to a feed that makes countless scrolling educational. Intrigued?

TikTok lately introduced that it is bringing its STEM feed to all customers in the US, United Kingdom, and Eire by default. Previous to this announcement, the STEM feed was solely turned on by default for customers below the age of 18. The feed was opened to all users in Canada earlier this month.

What’s the STEM feed?

Open your telephone and study one thing new

TikTok / Pocket-lint

TikTok’s STEM feed is supposed to be a spot to seek out academic movies associated to science, expertise, engineering, and arithmetic. Primarily, it is a spot you go to study one thing whereas being on TikTok quite than simply being entertained by cats or individuals doing dumb issues.

After scrolling by the STEM feed for a couple of minutes, among the movies in it are literally fairly good. The primary video I watched was somebody explaining how a cruise ship floats, and the opposite video was about an extinct species I did not even learn about. I can see how this part on TikTok may truly be a drive for good on the platform.

Associated

Take advantage of TikTok’s secret weapon with this one simple trick

Have you ever ever had your TikTok For You web page whisk away a video you had been about to look at? This straightforward hack is right here to save lots of the day.

Why is TikTok opening up the STEM feed to all customers?

It could have one thing to do with the criticism the app has confronted

TikTok launched the STEM feed part again in early 2023, after dealing with criticism from lawmakers, rights teams, and some in the press that argue TikTok is dangerous to younger individuals, and is designed in a solution to be addictive, so it will probably preserve customers engaged for so long as attainable.

It isn’t simply issues about dependancy both, TikTok has additionally been criticized for its potential affect on its consumer’s psychological well being, as outlined in a report by the Guardian final yr.

TikTok could also be trying to the STEM feed to advertise the optimistic affect the app can have. In U.S. congressional hearings final yr, TikTok CEO Shou Chew said he believes the STEM feed is “inspiring a brand new technology to find a ardour for math and science.” He additionally expressed on the time that the feed already had over 116 billion views on the time.

By making the STEM feed out there to all customers by default, no matter age, TikTok is signaling a shift in its advertising technique: it desires to market itself as a spot for studying, not simply endlessly scrolling memes to your coronary heart’s content material.

The STEM feed is out there now on TikTok. You will discover it by scrolling to the left previous the Discover feed. The app’s settings, below content material preferences, help you flip the feed off.

Associated

These 6 apps helped me stop mindlessly scrolling on my phone

We love our smartphones, however typically you need assistance pulling away. These apps get in-between you and your addictive apps that can assist you use them much less.