October 24, 2019

"TikTok users know that what they post can be repurposed and recontextualized. Reusing other people’s content..."

"... is the central engine of the platform. The voicemail meme is interesting in the standard sense that people who were once in abusive relationships are regaining power and autonomy, and helping viewers in similar situations work through them as well. But the trend is also interesting in that it feels preemptive. If audio needs video accompaniment on TikTok, and people are going to automatically turn anything earnest or heartfelt into an ironic demonstration, it makes sense that users are now doing it to themselves. On one level, they’re claiming dominance over their exes, on another level, they’re also claiming dominance over their audience and critics on TikTok by beating detractors to the punch."

From "Why People Are Soundtracking Dance Videos With Old Voicemails on TikTok" (NY Magazine). Example:

33 comments:

Fernandinande said...

"Why People Are Soundtracking Dance Videos With Old Voicemails on TikTok"

They can't think of anything interesting or useful to do with their free time, which should be spent commenting on each other.

madAsHell said...

No matter how could she looks, there is somebody, somewhere that is tired of her shit!!

madAsHell said...

...and yeah, I forgot. Nice tits!!

PM said...

And, lest we forget, beheadings.

Owen said...

I guess I need to enter the 21st Century but viewed from afar this meta-meta-meta exegetical parsing of digital narcissism strikes this humble commenter as mostly death spasms of a self-canceling culture. There is such a thing as too much irony.

Ken B said...

Isn’t he complaining about her being disrespectful?

Ken B said...

Is this on the wrong thread? Because that video looks like Adam Schiff responding to questions about secret hearings.

Lucid-Ideas said...

It was before my time, but there was a generation of hardcore libertarians (classic sense), survivalists and other fringe people who always talked about 'being off-grid' as in leaving no visible trace of their existence or being independent to the point of not having a license or even a bank account.

Now these kinds of people are still considered fringe, but you have to begin to ask yourself in the modern - your digital-presence-is-most-definitely-being-stored-somewhere - world if it doesn't make more sense to really make conscious efforts to go as 'offline' as possible. If not the corporate entities, then someone else will proactively seize the content you've produced to do this or worse, create some deepfake of you. I mean even several high-level people in silicon valley are on record talking about their purposeful curation (or lack thereof) of their own children. They know the power of what's coming, for good or ill, and you can't hack, fake or use what doesn't exist.

The dude's message was obnoxious, but it's going to get to a point where (it is already) where it is 10x better to just ghost. Leave no trace. Leave nothing useful. Leave no sign. I'm an outlier because I've worked in the intelligence community, but it's going to get to the point where everyone is going to have to start acting like a spy.

Ice Nine said...

Now, who does this? And, why? And, for that matter, WTF exactly is it that they are they doing?

Ann Althouse said...

"Because that video looks like Adam Schiff responding to questions about secret hearings."

If Adam Schiff looked like that, Trump would be impeached by now.

n.n said...

Ah, yes, the cute factor. A color judgment. Vote with me.

madAsHell said...

good, not could......I'm sure it's Freudian. I could sure do her!!

Gospace said...

I have no idea what Tik Tok is.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Who saves old voicemail from exes? This guy needs to get back in touch with her. She'll rock his world.

Amadeus 48 said...

The duckface throughput makes it extra-special.

n.n said...

Oh, who am I kidding. I vote for the cute impeachment.

readering said...

Nice to know some people still listen to their voicemails.

Kevin said...

I find it hard to believe that the attention wh*ring exhibitionist he described would go and put that voicemail on the internet and dance to it.

Kevin said...

And Bill is right, you don't keep voicemails from people you don't care about

Carol said...


The duckface throughput makes it extra-special.

Why. Do they do that.

Hey Skipper said...

She seems nice.

Amadeus 48 said...

"If Adam Schiff looked like that, Trump would be impeached by now."

That is oh so true--but he doesn't.

He looks like Adam Schiff. He walks like Adam Schiff. He talks like Adam Schiff. He is probably is Adam Schiff. But does he do duckface when he takes a selfie?

Sebastian said...

Boy, that dance sure was kinda crazy, the soundtrack OTOH sounded like a legit criticism of Ms. Asspants. Or was that not the point?

n.n said...

a selfie

Selfie-ish marketing in the social media age.

iqvoice said...

Fortunately he was able to break up with the slut before she got an anchor baby.

Rusty said...

I was actually following the bouncing boobs, so what was the question?

S45 said...

well...that was super nsfw.

Howard said...

That never gets old

readering said...

Turns out the audio was not a voicemail. Per Rolling Stone:

"It was a conversation she had surreptitiously recorded in his car during an argument: he had seen a photo on her social media of her wearing a T-shirt and leggings to school, and was berating her for, as he claimed, showing off her body."

She had to get a restraining order on the guy, who did not go to her school, but showed up.

But she was inspired by a TikTok voicemail dance and they are a thing.

Robert Cook said...

A la Jules Feiffer's dancers, she's dancing to her joy at no longer being tethered to such a pathetic whining baby-man.

(Or, as she may have titled her dance, "Fuck off and good riddance, dickshit!)

Ken B said...

Readering
Very interesting. Frankly they both sound like people best avoided. But if she got a restraining order I am thinking her making this video looks like a provocation. Unwise and unpleasant.

Ken B said...

“I was actually following the bouncing boobs, so what was the question?”

Did you see the man in the gorilla suit?

DavidUW said...

In which young women look to GARNER more attention.