I enjoy my daily scrolling on TikTok, but recently I’ve seen a surge of Live videos being recommended in my feed. These are the reasons this particular type of content is ruining the app experience for me.
1 They’re Irrelevant
I’m not sure what criteria TikTok uses to suggest Live videos to you besides location, because all of mine are irrelevant and simply located in South Africa. My TikTok feed is filled with animal content and funny songs, as well as the occasional post about technology.
But for some reason, when it comes to Live videos, I’ve been recommended tarot readings, astrology readings, car auctions, random vlogs from people I don’t know, and a whole lot of other content I would never willingly interact with.
If a TikTok Live video showed me a live camera of animals at a rescue center, or a live recording of a tech event, the feature would be much less insufferable. But now when I scroll through my FYP, I’m greeted by ads and low-quality Live videos in between the actual content I want to see.
2 They’re Frequently in My Feed
For a while, I wouldn’t see any TikTok Live videos in my feed at all. Besides the frequent ads, my TikTok feed was bliss. However, towards the end of August 2024, Live videos made a resurgence on my feed and interrupted an otherwise enjoyable experience.
I spend about 15 minutes per day on TikTok because I aim to prevent wasting too much time on social media. During this limited time, I’m now greeted by several live videos, which greatly decrease my enjoyment. I quickly scroll past them so that TikTok gets the message, but they still appear in my feed—especially around noon.
If TikTok’s algorithm doesn’t get the message soon, I might stop interacting with the app altogether.
3 There’s No Way to Exclude Them
TikTok allows you to exclude certain content using keywords. This allows you to filter out content with that keyword from your feed. But Live videos are a category of content, not a keyword that appears in the description or title.
If TikTok had a way to filter out certain categories of content, like reposts and Live videos, I’d use it to improve my TikTok FYP.
Swiping quickly past the videos seems to be the only way to curb them. But even just taking screenshots for this article and immediately swiping past a video have been enough to increase the number of Live videos showing up in my recommendations between days.
I’m going to spend the next few days vigorously skipping Live videos in hopes that it improves my feed. But if TikTok keeps force-feeding me this irrelevant, low-quality content, it might be time to take a break from the app.
