Upcoming January 19, 2025 is proposed to be the day that the social media app, TikTok, gets banned in the U.S., raising different feelings across the country. This idea first spread in April 2024, when former president Joe Biden signed a bill that would require TikTok, owned by Chinese company-ByteDance, to sell to a non-foreign company. ByteDance refused to sell, and hopes to stop the ban. They also are attempting to postpone it, but its effort for the federal appeals court to take the case failed and users of the app wait for its fate to be determined. The ban would remove the app off of mobile app stores, prohibiting it from being updated or downloaded. Eventually, this would deem it unusable.
The app’s removal would have both positive and negative effects. Positive effects include diverting influences from another country. People will be protected from data breaches, and misinformation.
The app itself has a chokehold on people as they watch hours a day, endlessly scrolling. Not only is it a timewaster, but it affects one’s emotions and wellbeing. The need to intake more media clashes with the need to be doing something productive. The idleness causes feelings of guilt, time alone, and ultimately loneliness.
This is not only a problem with TikTok. Many phone apps have the same consequences. In this sense, the TikTok ban won’t solve these issues because it will just be replaced by another outlet. Even non-social media apps like the trending BlockBlast app is already becoming an addiction similar to that of TikTok. Kids are spending hours trying to get a new record of satisfyingly stacking blocks comparable to Tetris.
For TikTok users, some people will be void of a source of entertainment they have come to rely on. Apps like Instagram, Pinterest and Youtube with their short videos might ease the transition to a life without TikTok.
One big impact the ban would make is on the content creators and businesses who have become dependent on the app as a source of income. Creators on TikTok would have to rebuild their platform they’ve devoted to build.
It’s hard to imagine or believe that TikTok would be banned, considering how loved it is worldwide. The U.S. alone has 170 million users and many people are willing to protest in order to express their discontent over this. What it really comes down to is the protection of Americans’ data which is prioritized over their right to freedom of speech, though it’s debated which is more important.