However I’ve by no means as soon as added a good friend on TikTok, despatched a direct message or considered myself as a “TikToker.” And I don’t assume I’m alone. For most individuals I do know, TikTok isn’t a spot to attach with different folks. It’s a spot to waste time, to numb out, to unplug from actuality and float within the feed. That passive, dissociative high quality, whereas nice for engagement, has additionally made TikTok really feel extra replaceable than different, extra social networks. If it goes away, we’ll simply get our repair some other place.
I’m additionally persuaded by the reason given in The Atlantic by Hana Kiros, who says TikTok is a sufferer of its personal success. TikTok’s reputation, she argues, has led a lot of different social networks to repeat its options. Now, customers who need to drop into an infinite wormhole of brief, entertaining vertical movies can go to Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat or X, all of which have launched TikTok-style feeds lately. And in a world the place each app works like TikTok, perhaps TikTok itself feels much less mandatory.
I’ll add another optimistic chance: Possibly we’re prepared for a change.
What spending time on TikTok represents — to me, not less than — is a sort of cognitive give up, a willingness to cease actively directing my ideas and emotions and to let ByteDance’s algorithm entertain me for some time. It may be a nice expertise, and infrequently euphoric. (Each few days, my spouse catches me laughing at my telephone and asks, “What’s so humorous?” The reply, all the time, is TikTok.)
However over time, as I’ve spent extra time on TikTok, I’ve additionally seen the way it’s beginning to rewire my mind — blurring my focus, shortening my consideration span, making me much less serious about media that isn’t laser-targeted to my exact array of dopamine receptors. Others have reported that TikTok has change into a dangerous habit for them — an app they desperately need the federal government to ban as a result of they’ll’t stop it on their very own.
It’s most likely wishful considering to consider that if the ban takes impact, hundreds of thousands of screen-addicted TikTok customers will begin studying “Ulysses” and taking lengthy walks of their spare time. However perhaps it’s affordable to see the shrugs surrounding TikTok’s disappearance and surprise if, after years of giving that app our consideration, we’re prepared to take a position it some other place.
