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

Have you ever been endlessly scrolling TikTok recently? Effectively, when you’ve got, don’t fret you are not alone. The app, which has thousands and thousands of customers around the globe, is thought 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 infinite scrolling educational. Intrigued?

TikTok just 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 underneath the age of 18. The feed was opened to all users in Canada earlier this month.

What’s the STEM feed?

Open your cellphone and be taught 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 be taught one thing whereas being on TikTok relatively than simply being entertained by cats or folks doing dumb issues.

After scrolling by means of 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 find out about. I can see how this part on TikTok may truly be a pressure for good on the platform.

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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 folks, and is designed in a option to be addictive, so it could possibly maintain customers engaged for so long as attainable.

It is not simply considerations about habit both, TikTok has additionally been criticized for its potential affect on its person’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 constructive 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 obtainable to all customers by default, no matter age, TikTok is signaling a shift in its advertising technique: it needs to market itself as a spot for studying, not simply endlessly scrolling memes to your coronary heart’s content material.

The STEM feed is obtainable now on TikTok. Yow will discover it by scrolling to the left previous the Discover feed. The app’s settings, underneath content material preferences, will let you flip the feed off.

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