I understand that people spend a lot of time doomscrolling on it, but even with millions of daily users the optimistic side of me really wants to believe that it won't affect anyone's mental health in any measurable way.
I understand that people spend a lot of time doomscrolling on it, but even with millions of daily users the optimistic side of me really wants to believe that it won't affect anyone's mental health in any measurable way.
Nothing specific to TikTok either. PUBG mobile was also banned here around the same time, and people just moved to Call of Duty mobile.
This is the first largely used anything online the government has banned, and I'm personally still upset it even got this far. The internet was supposed to be free speech incarnate, and banning apps and websites for Americans on it, isn't something I honestly thought I'd ever see
As they should be, because they stupidly made their lives dependent on a single platform that anyone with a brain could see was likely to run into trouble sooner rather than later.
The lesson for the is: don't put your eggs in one basket.
I listened to the final, farewell videos of several people. Some have leveraged TikTok on other platforms, but for a great many, TikTok was the only platform that let them reach an audience.
TikTok was eating the competition because it was simply better at matching content. It is a completely different beast in that regard.
Calling people stupid who leveraged an unrivaled technology to build a community and/or a business feels particularly anti-human.
I'm not calling them stupid for that, I'm calling them stupid because they didn't have a back up plan. Public policy should revolve around what they need or want (e.g. I'm sure some farmer somewhere could make a sob story video about how growing opium poppy has been so good for them, so heroin shouldn't be banned, but it's not about him).
It’s worth knowing I don’t go seeking new music on TikTok. Music that resonated with me was brought to me while looking for other things.
Topics which I found interesting lead me to books by new authors I didn’t know were authors on topics I didn’t know I wanted to read about. I’m not even much of an avid reader
A new year's resolution to go cold turkey and a chance to change a cure their own addictions.
It is not the end of the world. Just the end of someone's supply of a brand of digital drug.
And tell "go fuck yourself" to FB, Instagram, X ... etc.