Just a few hours after it was banned, TikTok has re-emerged to the surface and is back in service for most users, almost like it never left. Its return is credited to a move done by President Trump in an effort to save the app. While its users are surely happy that the app is back in service in just under a few hours after the ban, it’s also important to acknowledge that the foundation on which the ban took place had to do with national security and privacy concerns.
The app has been marked by the Congress as a national security risk since the app is owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance. The main concern is that the Chinese government could access sensitive data and spread misleading propaganda to its 170 million users in the U.S.
A former employee of ByteDance, Yintao Yu, alleged that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) used the access to TikTok to identify and monitor TikTok’s activists’ locations and communications. This is public evidence that the videos people post on TikTok are being used to get personal information about anyone. This is the sad reality: videos can get into anyone’s hands if they dig deep enough for it.
After learning more about the ban and the reasons behind it, Yilkauli Rodriguez-Rodriguez, a freshman at Manheim Township, believes that the ban would be beneficial.
“I don’t feel safe posting a video that includes my face on an app that could use it to retrieve personal information about me, ” she said.
Another freshman at Manheim Township, Leila Warnek, believes that the recent ban would be eye-opening to people.
“We shouldn’t be scared to post a simple video on a social media platform. I think the ban might give people a break and an insight to the fact that even without TikTok, life goes on,” she said.
The platform’s fame has brought on an interesting choice of career. Nowadays, young adults are debating dropping out of school to focus on becoming a famous influencer, as they believe the influencer lifestyle holds more appeal than working a typical job. Because of its popularity and influence on people, TikTok has managed to make ordinary people achieve celebrity-like status. TikTok has blinded people into thinking anyone can achieve that status; in reality, fame does not happen to everyone. Without fame, people may feel less important, which is why most people these days would do anything to be famous, which is why we need a break from social media.
If you ever felt the need for a break after studying for hours, you are not alone. Like most teenagers, I also find myself sometimes hoping for a quick break from studying for a few minutes. However, those minutes turn into hours, making it hard to keep up with the time sometimes. Thanks to TikTok’s limitless scrolling system, it’s not unusual that I end up spending way more time than I should there. It’s true that it’s hard to get away as videos just keep going. Spending countless hours on TikTok is normalized for teenagers, but it shouldn’t be.
While there is no saying what the future may bring, I think a reset from the daily routine of endless scrolling on TikTok would be beneficial for many people. A total ban could have given us a breath of fresh air and a new chapter in our life that is not solely focused on social media and fame.
