Short Videos and a Different Kind of Life

The unique and diverse lives portrayed in short videos can be staged or real, but regardless, they have been experienced. This is a way of life, someone else’s way of life, or perhaps just a fleeting moment in someone else’s life.

I usually uninstall TikTok because I’m afraid I won’t be able to control myself. Even though I have bits of free time, I’m particularly afraid that I will mindlessly open the app and hours will pass by. That’s just wasting time, so I delete it from my phone on weekdays.

Of course, now WeChat also has a short video feature, so unless it’s necessary, I don’t usually open WeChat either. I have muted most of the groups because I don’t have a lot of people to contact on a regular basis, but sometimes when I’m using the restroom, I still unconsciously open it and take a quick look.

On weekends, I sometimes re-download the app. One reason is that it’s the weekend and I really want to rest. Besides, short videos are indeed a fast way to access information. Another reason is that I have found some content creators who have very informative videos, especially in the field of photography. I can learn from them. Lastly, I can discover some music that I like from the videos. I collect these music snippets and categorize them in my own file system.

I remember at one time, in the early days when short videos just started to become popular, I would waste a lot of time on them during weekends. I became numb to it, but I still watched. At that time, it seemed like I was already trapped in an information cocoon. The platform recommended content based on what it thought I would be interested in. They had formed a profile of the kind of person I was. That’s why even if I use it again, I won’t log into my account, because I use an iPhone and I won’t grant access to my device information. This way, I am essentially an anonymous user to the platform. And every time I uninstall and reinstall the app, I become a completely new identity to the platform, which minimizes the closed information that they push to me.

Nowadays, many young people don’t use search engines much anymore. They either go to short video apps or to Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book). At first, I didn’t understand it either, but I tried it and searched for work-related topics. However, the results were completely useless. Later, I discovered that if I wanted to search for things related to daily life, the efficiency was actually quite high. So now, I have developed a habit. If it’s work-related or code-related, I definitely still use Google search engine. But if it’s for entertainment or daily life-related topics (such as hiking routes near Beijing or reviews of a certain camera lens model), I also like to search on Xiaohongshu, and sometimes the results are even better than the search engine. Information is becoming more and more isolated. Only in specific places can you search for some usable information. As a result, the search engine, which used to be the gateway to information, is becoming less effective.

For me, the meaning of short videos has shifted to experiencing a different kind of life, within a limited amount of time, without being heavily influenced by algorithms (as an anonymous user). Through random events, I get a glimpse of other people’s joys and sorrows. I don’t care whether they are real or fake, because our own lives may not be entirely real either (how many people live behind a mask? At least for a period of time, I also wore a mask).

I enjoy watching extreme sports, sponsored by Red Bull, for example (such as the Isle of Man TT or extreme off-roading). These extreme sports can temporarily stimulate my nerves, make me feel excited, and let me know that there is a group of people living this kind of life in the world. It makes me look forward to my retirement life. There’s a quote from extreme sports that I still remember:

“Below the immortals, I am invincible; above the immortals, it’s a different story.”

I hope that one day, I can also experience it.