TikTok quietly rolled out a brand new feed for all customers, nevertheless it’s slightly onerous to seek out

Have you ever been endlessly scrolling TikTok currently? Effectively, if in case you have, don’t fret you are not alone. The app, which has tens of millions of customers around the globe, is understood to be a pretty good time sink. However now, TikTok is seeking to reinvent the wheel a bit, by giving all customers entry to a feed that makes countless scrolling educational. Intrigued?

TikTok lately introduced that it is bringing its STEM feed to all customers in the USA, United Kingdom, and Eire by default. Previous to this announcement, the STEM feed was solely turned on by default for customers below 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 instructional movies associated to science, know-how, engineering, and arithmetic. Primarily, it is a spot you go to be taught one thing whereas being on TikTok fairly than simply being entertained by cats or folks doing dumb issues.

After scrolling by way of the STEM feed for a couple of minutes, a few of 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 might 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 might have one thing to do with the criticism the app has confronted

TikTok launched the STEM feed part again in early 2023, after going through 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 might probably hold customers engaged for so long as attainable.

It isn’t simply issues about habit both, TikTok has additionally been criticized for its potential influence on its person’s psychological well being, as outlined in a report by the Guardian final 12 months.

TikTok could also be seeking to the STEM feed to advertise the constructive influence the app can have. In U.S. congressional hearings final 12 months, 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 out there 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 accessible now on TikTok. You’ll find it by scrolling to the left previous the Discover feed. The app’s settings, below content material preferences, mean you can flip the feed off.

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