Reddit or lemmy news related stuff is more similar to a potentially problematic curated RSS that happens to have a comment section than influencers giving the news.

Tiktok seems to lean more towards being a video sharing platform filled with aspiring content creators with followers who can get deeply infatuated with them and become their life coach in a sense than a RSS alternative.

So the least harmful impact of those types of platforms is making something like labubu become viral and explode in visibility and popularity, and the more harmful one being what lot of podcasters have done taking on the role of new anchors or science exports to their huge captive audience.

So if going back to the old days most similar thing would probably be getting all your news from what your neighbor Bob says.