A viral video on TikTok shows particularly absurd content. Many users who saw this video then found themselves with this other content in their for you page, further fueling the trend. Users believe that their son is now “ damn “.
It all started with a TikTok video at first glance like the others. In it, a user openly mocks the “ for you page » from her boyfriend, that is to say the content suggested by the application according to his tastes. She scrolls through the videos, each of which seems more absurd than the last: a tube of toothpaste dances to techno music, a wizard summons straw, a 3D animated fish rides a bike…
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In internet parlance, this kind of content with abstract humor is referred to as “ cursed ”, or cursed. Even if the boyfriend defends himself by saying that his “for you page” is “ normal », numerous comments left under the video clearly show that these are videos of a particular genre. But what stands out above all from these comments is a strange trend: those who saw this video have, as if by magic, in turn had these same videos in their “ for you page “. “ We have all been infected by the for you page of this guy », summarizes a user.
A video that curses other people's algorithms?
Shortly after this first video of marmots, we saw a video saying that ” gnomes had stolen the gray matter of the brain » from the user, a toad advising us to take a ” chill pill », a goose and a gorilla in 3D, a rat dancing to a tune by Vivaldi, a Minions concert, a frog complaining of having diarrhea…the list is endless.
We also saw some of the videos appearing in the very first video, such as the iconic wizard shouting “ I CAST MULCH “. Each time, in the comments, the same sentences came up: “ am I seeing this because I saw this video with the for you page of the guy? “, ” there for you page of this guy infected mine… and that suits me just fine “, ” there for you page of this guy became mine »… Everyone is unanimous: this man's algorithm has contaminated the others.
Contrary to what the comments might lead you to believe, this is not a coincidence, nor a real curse. It makes sense to be exposed to these kinds of videos after seeing the first one, because that's exactly how TikTok's recommendation algorithm works. When a user interacts with a video, either by watching it several times, commenting on it, or liking it, the algorithm records this data in order to offer other content of the same genre.
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When the first video on the for you page user's profile went viral, a lot of people interacted with it — and the algorithm went to work, serving many of those people with similar content. In this specific case, the similar videos were precisely these kinds of videos cursedsometimes exactly those that appeared in the first TikTok.
The same thing has happened thousands of times before, with other videos: if you like one booktok content, the algorithm will recommend others to you. Here, what is most striking is that these videos cursed were radically different from those proposed before, and therefore, much more remarkable. Watching the first video won't curse you — but it will bring you into the cursedtokwhether with regret, or for your greatest pleasure.