Clock App Creators

It’s TikTok Tuesday, and I was going to scroll through my list of creators I follow on that app and highlight a few of them, but it turns out I follow 350 people there, which is total insanity. I don’t follow that many people anywhere else on the internet (in spite of having been on Twitter for 15 years?!). I also rely on the algorithm almost 100% of the time that I use the app. I’m not sure the last time I swiped over to the “Following” tab and watched something from people I specifically chose to follow.

I scrolled back to the beginning of my list, just to see how this all got started, and 3 of the first 5 accounts were, or still are focused on some form of neurodivergent content. Nothing about this surprises me. I’ve been using the app for almost 2 years, sometimes with more or less frequency. For a while there, it definitely gave my brain a lot of crunchy stuff to focus on, which is what it loves.

As I go through the list, it’s a bit like excavating different eras of time. There’s the period when I ended up following a lot of animal rescue (primarily cat) accounts. I also had a short spate where RPGs and dice makers made repeat appearances (because I find watching dice unmolding videos very satisfying). There’s a little domestic queer content, because some people finally got to buy a house and decided to share the process of remodeling and refinishing it (also very satisfying to watch). Also, sometimes there are just people who make me smile and/or laugh, which are the ones I think I’m going to focus on today.

Dadchats: Lately, his stuff has been showing up in my Facebook/Instagram reels (the algorithm that sort of lags behind the “real one” for me) and I’ve gotten to re-live some earlier videos that I remember laughing about the first time I saw them. It felt a bit like re-watching a comedy special for some reason, because I would know a joke was coming, but then still be very delighted and happy at watching it unfold. He also has some really heartwarming content too, it’s not always accidentally putting a bag of trash in his backseat and throwing away a laptop bag.

Drennon Davis: TikTok is not the first place I ever heard this guy’s name. He recorded an album with Karen Kilgariff a few years ago, and that’s how I initially came across him. His account is primarily cats who are very much up in his business, but also living their own lives. They’re all very encouraging to each other, which is something I love to see, it’s very positive content. They’re also hilarious about harassing squirrels.

DonMarshall72: I get a bit hyped over Lord of the Rings content. It’s one of my favorite series. I love to re-read the books. I love this account because he looks at a lot of obscure facts in the lore. There’s so much of it, that it feels a bit like finding out about history from a far away place or something. He’s also the game master for a podcast that looks at what could have happened if they did “just take the eagles to Mordor” and how that isn’t the quick fix everyone imagines it to be. Great stuff.

B. Dylan Hollis: I am a sucker for quick recaps of recipes. I’m also the owner of several random fundraiser cookbooks. I can’t say that I’ve paged through many of them for things other than the ones I already know, but maybe in a few years I’ll really get motivated and start going through the “salad” section of one of the church cookbooks and find out just how un-salad-like the results actually are. This account looks at so many odd recipes with names that sound baffling and yet they culminate in a variety of desserts that seem to be delicious (based on the reactions we get to see on screen anyway). They’re not all great, which is sometimes a fun surprise, but a lot of the recipes give me some appreciation for the fact that I don’t have to substitute with random items and hope that a semi-decent cake comes out the other side. Also, sometimes there’s just good looking food there that I want to make.

Elyse Myers: I don’t understand Elyse’s life, at all. Like, there are stories from her past that I remain baffled by, even after hearing her tell them on TikTok, or seeing them replayed on Instagram or Facebook. That being said, I very much resonate with her vibe. Watching her get really into Taylor Swift, and then into crochet, and her previous efforts to finally understand her own curly hair… she’s just someone I relate to, and it’s often reassuring to watch her have a little meltdown about something random yet important and be able to see myself reflected back to me.

“The Clock App” provides a lot of distraction for me. I wish it always made me happy, but there are some days when it feels like the algorithm is just trying to hold a mirror up to my face and saying “how did you not know this about yourself?!” Sometimes that’s a good thing, other times, I’m just not in the mood for it. I’m pretty unlikely to swipe past any of these creators though.