#tbf I don’t think rednote itself is necessarily brain rot in the same way TikTok is

[icyfox62]

The sad thing is, while I get this is a comparison, at this point, I also understand a lot of words really just don’t feel safe in the hands of a lot of people. Especially after watching so many people, mainly on TikTok, imagine themselves in/put themselves through the wringer for clout.

TBF, it’s not that anyone officially “owns” the word. It’s that so many people using the word genuinely believe themselves to have lost everything. And no, I’m not saying this to down people that just lost their livelihoods.

I’m talking about the people so dependent on being constantly feed content that they feel they can’t function without it. This addiction to fast trends and letting your life run on autopilot paths designed by an algorithm, especially TikTok, is not normal. I understand TikTok and rednote don’t operate completely the same. However, considering that this highly emotionally charged behavior and comparisons are coming from people on an app notorious for word censorship (grape and k1ll) while also having your status (if that’s what you care about) potentially rely heavily on increasingly extreme and/or unique scenarios, it’s not shocking to see so many use emotionally heavy words. The extremes on TikTok are part of what fueled the app.

And all of this is without addressing the multiple elephants in the room.

That fact that so many easily found RedNote (despite not knowing the most commonly used language on the app) through the same algorithms that tell them what’s the next topic to fawn over or hate.

The number of people that have already developed a cult-like worship of RedNote (despite the fact that the original, non-american users are trying to warn them. These same original users also ironically being silenced by the new american users of all people). Seriously, if you like the app, fine. I can’t stop anyone from doing what they want. But so many people are so dedicated to it already despite only being on it for a few days max. Exercise some healthy suspicion at least a little. Don’t throw all of your cards on the table when the game just began.

The idolization of Asian people and culture as a trend is deeply disturbing. There’s been this narrative that sinophobia is the only reason people are not using rednote. Which is ironic and sad when you remember the same people praising rednote and Asian culture now were quite often bullying asians in the us for their lunches in school, their accents, their appearance. A lot of these people are the same ones that told Asians to go back to China (despite all Asians not being Chinese). Some many people don’t seem to realize or care that just like in the us, there is a glamorized image that is usually being presented first. The people and images encountered on this app, especially in the first few months, are heavily biased even form people with the best intentions. No, everything in china is not better just like everything in the us isn’t great either.

The fact that so many people are comfortable with an app that’s censoring whole topics that they don’t care to exercise caution on or even know about as they are receiving the attention they’ve being craving. Let’s be honest, they’re extremely lucky that no one has blatantly tried to take advantage of their gullibility yet.

The fact that this is another incident of “I hate my country and instead of doing something to improve it, I’ll not only bash it, I’ll jump to the opposite end of the spectrum.” Listen, Chinese people aren’t your enemy. But running headfirst into another app from a country that puts up firewalls and heavily censors its own citizens is not the solution to your problems you think it is. TikTok and douyin are separated despite being from the same parent company. Ever stop to think why? Or realize that if TikTok can be set aside for non Chinese citizens, couldn’t a similar split happen to rednote.

The way americans use such heavy word as "refugee" when talking about switching from TikTok to RedNote drives me mad. You just switched from one brainrot Chinese app to another, stop fucking put yourself on a par with people who lost their homes.