I never used TikTok but I do believe the reasons for it getting got are classic Red White and Bullshit.
How the fuck ever I do have hope (I’m hopelessly unable to not be at least a little hopeful) that this will be yet another notch in the “Americans Learning To DO Things” belt that helps combat some of the learned helplessness we all hold inside ourselves.
Seriously. The speed at which *young* people are organizing in new ways post-election and now post TikTok is honestly quite impressive. I loathe the overuse of “unprecedented” because most of the time that word just means “I didn’t learn about the precedents” buuuut in this case…
Damn. We don’t call ’em zoomers for nothing.
They’re FAST.
My millennial ass was just getting the hang of the TikTok vernacular and now they’ve moved on to casually picking up Mandarin and How to Survive Your Terrible Government lessons from the Chinese?
Okeeee!
Don’t get me wrong. Iss bad. Iss alllll bad. I’m still a salty bish about all the time wasted the last four years tryna do business as usual under Grampa Juh Biden instead of using that time for its intended purpose of buying time to build a truly sustainable foundation.
But I dunno. Perhaps it’s there in more ways than we know. A lil rough around the edges, for sure – but there. And in times it feels like we can’t keep up with the bullllshiitttt – remember power is out here banning TikTok thinking “hey that’ll get the youngsters to stop talking to each other about how much POWER can’t actually keep up with THEM”
Uhm. Okay Boomer..
The kids are gonna be alright. Let them lead.
Reflection:
- What are your thoughts on the TikTok ban? Have you posted them anywhere? If so, where? And why there?
- How do you think this moment can be utilized as a turning point toward controlling our methods of communication as opposed to feeling like billionaires control the whole internet?
- Do you think there might be positive mental health impacts because people are going to be forced to “unplug” if only just for a moment? In what ways can we ground ourselves in our control of the “doomscroll” model of online existence?
See More:
- We Are Not Trapped – Unlock your door and take back your power
- My Week In Privilege: A journaling exercise
- Additional TikTok Musings – Simultaneous Truth Exercise
- TikTok Ban Musings from a Hopelessly Hopeful History Nerd
- No, I’m not going to the Women’s March..