What is No One Misses TikTok?

But I’ve never added a friend on TikTok, sent a direct message or thought of myself as a “TikToker.” And I guess I’m not alone. For most people I know, TikTok is not a place to connect with other people. A place to pass the time, unwind, disconnect from reality and float in the feed. This passive and dissociative quality, although good for communication, has made TikTok feel more replaceable than other social networks. If it sells out, we will take our repairs elsewhere.

I am also convinced by the explanation given by Hana Kiros in The Atlantic, who says that TikTok is a victim of its success. TikTok’s popularity, he said, has led many other social networks to copy the feature. Now, users who want to fall into an endless wormhole of short and entertaining vertical videos can go to Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat or X, all of which have integrated TikTok feeds into the few years. And in a world where every app works like TikTok, maybe TikTok isn’t that useful.

I will add another tangible thing: Maybe we are ready for change.

What spending time on TikTok shows – to me, at least – is a kind of mental commitment, a willingness to stop being guided by my thoughts and feelings and let the ByteDance algorithm entertain me for a while. It can be a wonderful experience, and sometimes euphoric. (Every few days my husband catches me laughing on my phone and asks, “What’s so funny?” The answer, always, is TikTok.)

But over the years, as I spent more time on TikTok, I also noticed how it started to rewire my brain — blurring my focus, shortening my attention span, making me less interested in things. non-laser media. for clear dopamine receptors. Others have reported that TikTok has become a dangerous addiction for them — an app they really want the government to ban because they can’t quit on their own.

Hope to believe that if the ban goes into effect, millions of TikTok users will start reading “Ulysses” on their screens and go on long trips in their free time. But it may be reasonable to see the movement around the disappearance of TikTok and wonder if, after years of giving this app our attention, we are ready to use it elsewhere.