Cannot query me as to why. However, while i sat to my rooms floor, ears ringing on echoes of my personal today-ex-boyfriend’s shaky voice informing me personally he wished to break some thing away from, We decreased my cellular phone and you may, after on time purging it of all the evidence of my personal defunct relationships, launched TikTok.

Immediately the For You Page, blissfully unaware of what had just happened, served me with videos away from a couple of lovable gays filming an adorable skit for the adorable people page. Clearly, despite its seen omniscience, TikTok’s algorithm had not been listening in on my calls, nor had it been reading my texts.

When I next braved the app three weeks later, nothing had changed. There they were, taunting me again: date memes, couples’ skits, soppy compilations of Ian and you will Mickey out-of Shameless. The FYP had been there for me in the darkest depths of the pandemic, but now it had forsaken me; left adrift and single in the depressing sea of #relationship TikTok. Well, I thought, if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions? Up until a few weeks prior I’d been in a (seemingly) happy relationship, so videos that spoke to that experience were exactly the sort of stuff I’d eagerly engaged with. TikTok was only doing its job, but for obvious reasons I desperately wanted out of this nightmarish pit of romantic content.

We started initially to ponder just how long it might use the formula in order to suss away what had took place on the other side out-of brand new screen (tl;dr date: went, heart: broken) and you will punt myself back to #SingleTok where I belonged. Thus i setup a straightforward try: Each day I would carry on TikTok and you will browse the new FYP for approximately half-hour, ignoring dating-styled posts and you can twice-scraping almost anything to perform which have breakups or becoming solitary. In the act I would personally test out some other strategies to nudge the latest software regarding proper guidelines. With a little fortune, I might be able to come back my personal offer to help you a place in which We would not need to hurl my mobile phone across the place. I will manage shedding the latest date, however, We was not about to help TikTok forgo a fight.

Go out That

My first proper reunion with the For You Page was rough. During the 30 minutes I spent scrolling, I came across a nauseating 19 videos about relationships – including at least three couples’ accounts. Only one (a melancholy Brokeback Slope clip) seemed to capture anything resembling my current mood. As I waded through the thick sludge of content I noted down details of offending videos for later reference – we’re talking five skits with captions containing the phrase “in case your boyfriend,” three couples bragging regarding their gender life, and not one but two Mickey and Ian slideshows. As a result of my thorough note-taking I was perhaps guilty of letting those TikToks play all the way through, and the app possibly misread the watch time as a massive thumbs-up, randki christianmingle curating even more scenes of romantic idyll I didn’t want. Needless to say I came away from the experience feeling emotionally drained, but unsurprised. This was not going to happen overnight.

Day A couple

For my second dive into the murky waters of the FYP, I needed a change of tack, so I resolved to mark a note on a piece of paper whenever any #relationship videos flashed up, and to swipe past them without hesitation. Once again I spent half an hour scrolling and once again I was made to feel worse for it. I’m unsure how many clips I got through in total, but 42 of them literally had the word ‘boyfriend’ in the goddamn caption. I fell back on the sofa, groaning. Try as I might to steer the algorithm towards memes regarding are contributed for the and away from skits in the spooning, TikTok wasn’t hearing me.