WikWok | WikWok transforms your Wikipedia reading experience into an engaging, scroll-based article feed [TikTok like].

Wow this is neat! It's making Wikipedia more engaging, something I could actually read more regularly.

I'm a person that saw this and thought "YES!".
It's a way to make my mindless scrolling a little bit less mindless. It's not a Wikipedia alternative it's a tiktok alternative (I don't use tiktok, but I understand why people do, my attention span is also shattered). Obviously it's not going to replace looking things up on Wikipedia, and I love exploring links in Wikipedia articles, but you don't know what you don't know so this seems like a good way to learn about things you didn't know you were interested in.

...but why
- Some people have an addiction to scrolling, thanks to skinner boxes being implemented in all the major social media sites and online marketplaces.
  This app manages to fill the niche of a skinner box, with educational content rather than algotrash. This allows people to reclaim their scrolling sessions and reconditoon away from the endless dopamine dripfeed into a more healthy relationship with social media and the internet at large.

I enjoyed that. I could go to the Wikipedia front page and click a random article, but (for me) flicking quickly between some topics until being interested in an ancient Mayan aristocrat and reading about her, is a content delivery service that works for me.
I get why folks might hate it, or not need it, but I often look to my phone as a randomising information delivery system. I can always look into stuff I'm interested in, but I need the chance of being introduced to topics that would never occur to me. Journalism and social media can provide a route to that, but there's something to be said for scrolling through topics until I find something that intrigues me, instead of preferencing whatever promotes engagement on Lemmy (or wherever).

I understand, intellectually, that some people might love this.
To me, this is on the same level as offering to set my building materials on fire before I build my house. I can't imagine any way this could make things better.

This reminds me of that one company that turned books into text messenger conversations.
Whatevs. If it gets people who have their attention spans ruined by the internet to learn more things and experience more forms of media I'm game.

Just tried it, looks like a feed of random wikipedia articles. The first article that came up was about some french village, not exactly engaging to be honest.
- I mean there's not too many other ways you could make a scrolling Wikipedia feed and it all sounds terrible. Wikipedia is at its best when feeding a rabbit hole via nested links to the concepts that underlie what you are already learning about.
  This person is probably trying to build a portfolio of applications they can say they've made so they can get a job doing something useful. Smashing a new ui on old info is a relatively brainless way to do that, and doesn't require much critical thought.