Social Media is the most influential tool in our lives today. If you looked around outside, I guarantee you would see someone walking with their head in their phone, most likely looking at Instagram or scrolling on TikTok. We have all been guilty of this. But what has made us so addicted to our phones?
Ever since reading about the TikTok ban, I began to think about how this would impact our world. As someone who uses TikTok every day, I was angry, as I wouldn’t be able to catch up on the latest trends or see what my favorite creators have posted. While a TikTok ban may seem like the end of our lives, would it be that way? What if it is the start of our lives, and can truly help us become more in tune with the world around us?
Yes, this app being banned would mean millions of creators would lose their jobs, as some use TikTok as a source of income thanks to TikTok Shop and the Creator Fund, there are many ways to still receive income through online selling. Etsy, Depop, and Amazon allow you to sell goods as well, and Instagram also allows you to have a platform supporting brand partnerships and promotions. Instagram is also a big contributor to being the reason we are glued to our phones, but one less app could lead to us being better at staying unplugged. Instagram has been used recently as a more professional platform, with users only posting every so often, and only posting what they like, to maintain an “aesthetic feed”. Some users maintain a “finsta”, or second account to post content that wouldn’t match that “aesthetic”, and is mainly followed by close friends. This could become the new TikTok, as Instagram maintains a section of the app used for short-form content, called Reels. Many app users use this TikTok alternative, some even posting their TikToks on Reels as well. As a result, we wouldn’t be missing much when it comes to this type of content, and it could potentially shift to Instagram, making this app even more popular. However, part of me hopes this ban would create a large impact on our generation, and it wouldn’t just be a small bump in the road.
So what will life look like after the ban? Well, I believe the US would hopefully become more in tune with each other, and enjoy being in person. After becoming very used to being online after COVID, it is time we bring things back to in-person. Would this make us smarter now that we aren’t glued to our phones? How would this impact trends and how we interact with one another? These questions will hopefully be answered once the times comes. I hope this will bring us closer together and help us better understand the world around us.