With a vertical layout perfectly suited to mobile devices and an effective algorithm that recommends content based on the user’s tastes, TikTok’s ‘For You’ feed is one of the main reasons (if not the main reason) for the app’s worldwide success. One of the strengths of the social network of short videos that has been replicated by other major technology companies, such as Instagram, Amazon, SoundCloud, Reddit and Spotify.
Now, TikTok has announced that it will launch a new feed with the name ‘STEM’, which will focus on content related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The new feed, which will start appearing in the app for US users at the end of March, will sit alongside the algorithmic feed For You and the ‘Following’ feed, where we can view videos from those accounts we follow.
“Educational communities already thrive on TikTok. In fact, STEM-related hashtags have received more than 110 billion views to date, connecting a dynamic community of people who share interests,” TikTok states in a blog post.
“We’ve designed the STEM feed to serve as a destination for those who want to delve deeper into these enriching topics. Whether it’s encouraging aspiring scientists to craft experiments in the comments sections or helping a new programmer learn to code, the STEM feed offers a space for co-learning, inspiration and enrichment“, the company states.
The project is the result of TikTok’s collaboration with Common Sense Networks and Poynter, which will be in charge of monitoring the content uploaded to this new feed in order to confirm that the videos are appropriate and reliable, thus eliminating the risk of negativist and disinformative content being uploaded.
A great addition not only for the scientific community but for all TikTok users, who will have easy and free access to a multitude of popular videos with which they can safely learn about a wide variety of topics. Knowing that many users use TikTok’s search engine more than Google’s, the launch of this feed could be a way for students to search for questions about their syllabus without even leaving the app.
