My sister-in-law, Noelia, has done something horrible and I’m going to out her about it. She installed TikTok on my phone and I became immediately addicted.
I feel like a 20-something. But I know I’m still 57 because I call it X-Box for reasons unknown with alarming frequency.
I still don’t understand it all but it’s just short little videos about everything under the sun. I’m assuming 20-somethings don’t have very long attention spans.
Noelia got me interested when she told me about this chef she found who makes very good videos. I thought, ”cooking videos. I would probably like that.” I still watch Julia Child’s “The French Chef” videos all the time. And Noelia was right. He is good.
There are thousands of people who cook entire dishes in one minute. Very addictive to me. The crab dip recipe in my food column this week came from one of them, and I can’t wait to try it.
My addiction happened at a very opportune time. Some idiot anti-masker came to rant on my social media page and I had to tell her about herself. I used some not-very-gentlemanly language and because of that I had to go to Facebook jail for three days.
So with all this time on my hands I began to delve into X-Box. I mean TikTok.
It turns out that it’s actually very helpful which surprised me.
There are lawyers who give you tips. Doctors who help you self diagnose to rule out certain things when you don’t feel good. And that is especially comforting to me because I’m a Virgo. We Virgos are the nurses of the Zodiac. I always know what’s wrong with me before I go to the doctor.
One lady works for an insurance company and she shared tips. Did you know that if you have a hospital stay and you get a bill for it they just give you an amount and say “this is what you owe.”
However, if you call the hospital and ask for an itemized bill they will send you one and it is often 20% lower than the original bill. Think of the money you could save doing that.
And speaking of money there are a bunch of investors who give good tips about making your money work harder for you.
Oh and a Realtor from New York City who bought a tri-plex and rented it out. The rents were astronomical being in New York, but the money from those three units completely pay the mortgage on her nearly $1 million home.
One of the cooks happens to be vegan which I will never be, but it’s fun to watch her because she just goes around her neighborhood and picks up edible plants for dinner.
She taught me that Poison Hemlock looks a lot like Queen Anne’s Lace and how you should never mix up the two for obvious reason. But she showed the difference between them so I won’t make that mistake if I ever get a hankering for a big ole bowl of Queen Anne’s Lace stew.
It seems like I remember some brouhaha about Tik-Tok a while back but I never paid any attention because I thought I’d never need to know anything about it. So far I have seen nothing offensive. Of course there are conspiracy theorists but I don’t have to watch them. And of course a lot of political stuff but I stay away from that as well.
There are parental settings you can use on your kid’s phones if it’s a concern.
Over all I kind of like it, but I’m quite sure I have only scratched the surface. I’m still mad at Noelia, but when I took her a Reporter on Wednesday she was busy on TikTok when I walked in her house so at least I know she is addicted too. kyle@rockdalereporter.com
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