Apparently nobody is immune to the endless TikTok scroll
Jeremy Clarkson recently learnt first-hand something that many of us know already: That social media is addictive, and it’s designed to be that way.
The former Top Gear host, 66, often speaks about how life in the UK used to be better back in the day. And his most recent irritation is apparently the social media site, TikTok, which he has deleted “from his phone and from his life”.
While the short-form video sharing platform is really aimed at teenagers and young people, Clarkson really enjoyed it as it initially served up the content he liked to see – apparently clips of speeches by the late former US President Ronald Reagan. Then, his algorithms did the rest, and it wasn’t long before he was hooked.
Clarkson said that it didn’t take very long before his relationship with TikTok turned sour, according to Express, “Soon, I was spending quite a lot of my time idly scrolling through videos because once every 20 minutes or so something funny or interesting would pop up. So then I’d scroll some more.
But I never actually posted anything myself and never once liked anyone else’s posts either”. He referred tp himself as a “TikTok voyeur”.
Now that he has deleted the app, he says he has found time for other things, including completing a 1 000 piece jigsaw puzzle, going for walks in the woods with his dogs, meeting friends at the pub for a pint, and reading Winnie the Pooh stories to his grandchildren.
While he might have been in its grips for a while, Jeremy Clarkson still showed some disdain for the roughly two billion people who use the site every month, saying, “TikTok had become something of an addiction. I convinced myself that it provided a window on to the soul of the nation but it’s no such thing. It’s a portal into a world of idiots, show-offs and has-beens”.
If there’s one thing Clarkson’s latest confession proves, it’s that nobody is immune to the endless TikTok scroll.
