I'd been thinking of making a post earlier today, and maybe only stopped myself by procrastinating until the feeling passed. I thought about how after Mei's cat was killed by a dog, I didn't really say much except to maybe ask about animal control — I had no idea what is the proper reaction to a dog that is attacking people, possibly in a rural area, or what should be done if one's pet cat suffers a violent death — and a bit after that, she suggested she might start playing a game.
Like, obviously I thought it was very serious that her cat was dead, especially since it was probably the cat that was named after me, but despite sort of knowing me for seven years with long gaps of not talking, she didn't initially realize that I cared that this had happened. She thought that what she should do was something that made her happy and which conveyed to me that she was happy, even if her cat was dead and brought in to lie on the floor or something.
So it's nice to be able to have dinner (on Valentine's Day) with someone I guess (again, I have never done so), but it seemed unlikely you were in a relationship with your date, and so you might feel sad afterwards.
I'm just reacting to your TikTok video, which is set in a restaurant, and so my mind makes random associations to things that are related to restaurants.
A short video:
The top comment says, "the off time screaming is perfect". It really makes it feel more authentic, like it was done in one take. A great idea for a video, without spending too much effort on it. Like, another video that features the same creator has her saying, "hey! Stop scrolling. Do your homework!"
Which honestly has a crazy amount of comments: 31k comments with 2.8m views, while the restaurant video has 5.6k comments with 60m views.
Tangent, restaurant video was at 1.2m likes, 27.5m views on 2025-06-09 (view source, search for "views"). It more than doubled in views, but only got 25% 33% more likes. But comments did go up significantly. So is it a genuine audience that comments more than they give likes, compared to the core audience, or is it bot/AI comments becoming more common in the past year?
And just the fact that it's getting more views, after more than a year. (It's a bit sad that YouTube no longer lets creators make video statistics, like views over time and viewer demographics, public; if it did, I wouldn't need to have the habit of bookmarking videos with their current view count.) It seems like Douyin videos drop off completely in views, and here I am once again gratuitously providing examples:
(Did I link this recently lol?) [1572k likes, 1863k subs, 05 Feb 2026][Spectre]#transition 年度最认真！@抖音小助手 - 抖音 Video is over seven years old, she gained 32k followers in 10 days, but the video is still only at 1571.9k likes.
[356K likes, 312K subs, 23 Oct 2025][killer whale]不是 哥们你投胎成虎鲸之前 是不是没喝孟婆汤#虎鲸 #上海海昌海洋公园 #显眼包都来海洋公园了 #全上海的显眼包都来了 #上海海昌海洋公园万秀节 - 抖音 —went up a lot more than I expected, is from 2025-09-27, now 503k likes.
[6014K likes, 28 Sep 2025]于是自由在我背后升起 #rockyourbody #旱地拔葱 #抖音潮流舞蹈大赛 #生命力#UK摇 - 抖音 —from 2025-07-21, now 6052k likes.
[488K likes, 23 Oct 2025]小手办木骨也太可爱了吧 #与小乔春游赤壁 #国风小聚#花絮 #木骨 - 抖音 —from 2024-04-17, now 489.4k likes.
[1.1M likes, 88K followers, 11 Oct 2024]在夜市吃地瓜球#街边 #好吃的 #日常碎片🧩 #甜妹 #男高 - 抖音 —from 2024-07-20, now 1207k likes, 122k subs.
[2.54M likes, 11 Oct 2024]#uchida1 - 抖音 —from 2024-09-16, now 2836k likes.
[1224K likes, 1256K likes total, 43.7K subs, 29 Aug 2025]本来就记不住动作。#卡点舞 #反差 #妈妈的小棉袄 - 抖音 —from 2025-08-25, now 2260k likes, 2320k total likes, 81k subs.
[2142K likes, 01 Sep 2025]好快啊 一个月已经变成了九斤多的胖宝宝 @小鱼丸（变冷白皮版 #萌宝宝 #骗你生女儿 #这是我的小baby啊#韩姬儿美瞳 #韩姬儿棉花娃娃黑 - 抖音 —from 2025-07-06, now 2196k likes.
[1861K likes, 31 Aug 2025]好羡慕她俩的感情，犯错了爸爸本想教育一下，妹妹护着姐姐，姐姐心疼妹妹，姐妹俩一条心！#双胞胎 #骗你生女儿 - 抖音 —from 2025-08-16, now 2174k likes.
[1861K likes, 01 Sep 2025]钵钵鸡～#骗你生女儿 #萌娃 #人类幼崽 #万物皆可钵钵鸡 #被你萌化了 - 抖音 —from 2023-12-28, now 1860.4k likes.
[1378K likes, 01 Sep 2025]又是父女情深的一天呀～ #人类幼崽 #骗你生女儿 #爸爸带娃 #父女日常 #爸爸的小棉袄 - 抖音 —from 2025-01-08, still 1378.0k likes.
[923K likes, 01 Sep 2025]谁能拒绝一个刚睡醒就笑着扑向妈妈的女儿呀！#大眼萌娃 #骗你生女儿 #小煤气罐罐宝宝 #人类幼崽 #治愈系笑容 - 抖音 —from 2023-07-22, now 926k likes.
[3804K likes, 01 Sep 2025]能坚持做一件事就很了不起#悬空俯卧撑挑战 - 抖音 —account maybe has videos hidden or requires login, by 王奶奶的孙女 @50388369427:
None of these videos are about restaurants and the only point I was making was that YouTube's algorithm might promote certain older videos more than Douyin or TikTok does. I can't even say that this fact is 'interesting'.
The second thing about restaurants is a scene from the Chinese (Taiwanese) short TV series Futmalls (預支未來, 2020). It's just an 'influencer' doing a mukbang, with her camera set up in front of her at a restaurant.
I can't really say exactly why I mention it. I never really go anywhere, and it's possible I've never seen anyone filming themselves in 'real life', like to stream or make a video, so whether or not it's common now, this fictional portrayal of it might have been the first time I really saw how it looks, to an outsider who comes across it (not an audience member who sees the camera viewpoint). Sort of like how the film The Post-Truth World (罪後真相, 2022) — "intriguing, if somewhat narratively flawed", or "a sharp critique of today’s sensationalist media" — has a scene where a security guard is shown to enjoy watching a female anchor show (example), and then after he is lured away from his post and murdered, there is a brief shot of the show continuing on his computer's screen, unaffected by his death.
In Futmalls, the 'influencer' is negatively affected by events (I forget the details), with her audience unaware and unable to help her. In The Post-Truth World, it's a viewer who suffers harm, without anyone else knowing. But they both could be said to encourage people not to care too much about online interactions.
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