So here’s my tinfoil hat theory. When I watch Tik Tok (and I am fully aware my feed is different from others), I become genuinely happy. I see people singing, creating music together via duets, showing homesteading skills, teaching things they know, telling funny jokes, etc. I never see dangerous challenges, though I am not a teen. Here’s the tinfoil hat theory: Tik Tok is what social media was meant to be, but unlike American social media giants that made their deal with the devil and drive growth via separating and polarizing people, Tik Tok makes people feel like the world isn’t a scary awful place with “them vs us” mentality, and so it poses a threat to our political culture which feeds off division.

All I know is that when I go on Facebook I just see angry boomers being quasi political, when I go on Instagram I am filled with envy, when I go on twitter I feel overwhelmed by the sheer flood of information and vileness, and when I go on Tik Tok I feel happy and a new ambition to pick up the guitar again.