If you were to spend just a few minutes exploring my phone, you would see that the app TikTok, is, and always will be, nowhere to be found.
My lack of experience on TikTok may make you question my qualifications for writing an anti-TikTok opinion. While I encourage such analysis, let me assure you that it is in fact my lack of experience that makes me qualified to write this piece. It is hard to be in support of the banning of TikTok when you are a TikTok user (particularly a younger and more impressionable one) because it is nearly impossible to be on the app without being dependent on it.
Picture this – you’re with your friend and you’re at dinner, at a movie or just sitting in your room and talking. Then, your friend pulls out their phone and starts scrolling on TikTok. It’s like they’re not even thinking about it – their hand grabs their phone and opens the app.
This obsessive dependency, dare I say addiction, that I have witnessed around me is why I am for the TikTok ban. According to a survey, a little over 75% of Gen Z users in the United States said they felt that TikTok was addictive. Moreover, an article in the Richmond Journal of Law and Technology wrote that “brain scans of Chinese college students using a TikTok equivalent showed that areas of the brain involved in addiction were highly activated in those who watched personalized videos, and some people had trouble even controlling when to stop watching.”
This dependency has myriad effects – people have become dependent on using TikTok as an escape. When individuals are caught in an awkward conversation, stuck in a dull movie (or simply watching a dull scene of what is actually a pretty good movie) or are just generally bored, it is all too easy to pull out the occasional TikTok scroll rather than deal with the reality that is life. Feeling bored or being stuck in an awkward situation is a simple fact of life that people need to be able to cope with, especially as teenagers enter the “real” world during college and beyond. When you get a job and have to spend hours at an office or face a boring work call, are you going to be able to pull out TikTok? Chances are no, so you should start building up the muscle that allows you to deal with dull situations such as this now.
From a personal point of view, it is undeniably depressing and honestly annoying when I am hanging out with my friend and all of sudden they pull out their phone and start scrolling on TikTok. When that happens, I don’t know what to do. Sitting there and watching them scroll is deeply uninteresting, but I’m also not about to pull out a book and start reading.
Secondly, let’s talk about mental health. Without a doubt, TikTok is bad for your mental health. It forces users to compare themselves to others through constant exposure to the lives of others (which are often inaccurate and unobtainable). While people jetsetting to Paris on a monthly basis or videoing their Christmas hauls of designer bags are the norm on TikTok, this isn’t a reality for the vast majority of users. Moreover, the experience of just scrolling through TikTok for hours on end has diminished people’s capacity to interact and spend time with others, leading to increased feelings of isolation.
Thirdly, TikTok is full of misinformation. According to Pew Research, over half of TikTok users use the app for news. But the news showing up on people’s screens is not always accurate. Especially during the election, users were shown AI-generated videos and given false information about candidates. This harms the possibility of having an informed electorate and contributes to the gross polarization of America. Disinformation was also spread during Los Angeles fires, as seen through a photo of the Hollywood sign on fire that appeared on social media.
At the end of the day, this is a complex issue, and there are arguments to be made on both sides. However, when I am with my friends and family, I want them to be present. Yet, because of the nature of the app, no one will ever actually get off of the app on their own. But, if the U.S. government does enact a TikTok ban, then there will be an actual impetus that forces people to free themselves from this highly addictive and inordinately harmful app.
