On Saturday, Jan. 19, 170 million users from the Chinese-operated platform, TikTok, experienced a sudden shutdown accompanied with a message: “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.” The shutdown was due to uncertainty after the Biden administration’s decision to leave TikTok’s existence up to the Trump administration. Enamored users and creators of TikTok released final tributes by recreating their first-ever published videos and relinquishing them into the app for (supposedly) the last time. However, the morning after the unexpected darkness of TikTok took place, President Trump announced on his own X-like app, Truth Social, that he would “save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up.” As the future of the app remains in the air, students should consider the role of TikTok and social media as a whole in their lives, with the grief that people have expressed during the TikTok ban representing a clear addiction to the platform.
Looking to previous concerns about TikTok’s mishandling of user data prior to the 2025 ban, over the summer of 2022, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, ByteDance, conducted an internal investigation of mishandling committed by its employees seeking to obtain some U.S. TikTok users’ data. This led to the data of two American journalists being targeted, along with other influential figures that the company refused to identify. The historical data that was obtained was then moved to a cloud storage run by a software company, Oracle.
The idea of banning TikTok had been in Congress for years until April of 2024 when former President Joe Biden signed the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The act required TikTok, “unless it sells to a buyer from America or one of its allies,” to be banned starting Jan. 19, 2025. On Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive action that has delayed enforcement of the platform’s ban for 75 days. This aligned with promises he had made prior to his inauguration, although the action starkly contrasted his earlier views: five years prior to this, Trump sought to ban the app over national security concerns.
But even with the 75-day extension, the structure of TikTok has been modified. One significant change is that Apple has already excluded TikTok, Lemon8 and other apps developed by ByteDance from being purchased on the App Store. Even if some students still have those particular apps, they won’t be able to receive regular updates or support. That means that although the apps may remain operable, new bugs will not be able to be fixed, along with other issues. Though Trump signed an executive action that allowed the ByteDance company to sell TikTok within 75 days, he did not, in fact, “save” TikTok. If anything, Trump ignited the fire that resulted in the ban by delivering the problems with TikTok to Congress.
Whilst some users are disregarding the politics behind the ban, it is unequivocal that individuals have become addicted to the short-form social media content offered on TikTok, evident by the recent popularity of a similar platform. Hundreds of thousands of TikTok users have downloaded a Chinese-operated social media platform within a week, which exposes how quickly people jump from one app to another by the mere influence of others. It is a domino effect: one pushes its neighbor, the neighbor pushes the next one, and so on. It continues until all the dominoes are on the floor. This effect is exemplified by the newest replacement of TikTok, RedNote.
RedNote, an alternative social media platform, has recently come to light as ‘TikTok refugee’s,” as they call themselves, have been flocking in. The newest social media platform has ultimately uncovered TikTok users' fear and grief and is now being used as a way to enable further social media addiction. Xiaohongshu, as it is known to the Han Chinese citizens, has a red background with the Mandarin translation of “RedNote.” Though users of the app have been more than willing to welcome the TikTok refugees, the heavy Mandarin usage has spiked Duolingo’s users signing up to learn Mandarin. This is indicative of the lengths that users are willing to go to be able to feed their addiction to the short-form content on TikTok. The layout of RedNote has analogous features to those of TikTok — shopping, going live, sending private messages, etc. — so it is no wonder that it charted No. 1 on the App Store.
Especially since TikTok is nowhere near being “saved,” people should use this time to comprehend the relationship they have with social media. The amount of time that people spend scrolling through their “For You Page” on TikTok is unhealthy. Users should be aware of the time spent on these platforms and limit their social media usage as a whole. The excessive usage has been known to be detrimental to young people’s mental health. Instead of spending hours admiring posts from exes and celebrity figures, it’s time to be more present with in-person interactions, rather than scrolling through curated videos designed to manipulate one’s attention.
On Saturday, Jan. 19, 170 million users from the Chinese-operated platform, TikTok, experienced a sudden shutdown accompanied with a message: “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.” The shutdown was due to uncertainty after the Biden administration’s decision to leave TikTok’s existence up to the Trump administration. Enamored users and creators of TikTok released final tributes by recreating their first-ever published videos and relinquishing them into the app for (supposedly) the last time. However, the morning after the unexpected darkness of TikTok took place, President Trump announced on his own X-like app, Truth Social, that he would “save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up.” As the future of the app remains in the air, students should consider the role of TikTok and social media as a whole in their lives, with the grief that people have expressed during the TikTok ban representing a clear addiction to the platform.
Looking to previous concerns about TikTok’s mishandling of user data prior to the 2025 ban, over the summer of 2022, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, ByteDance, conducted an internal investigation of mishandling committed by its employees seeking to obtain some U.S. TikTok users’ data. This led to the data of two American journalists being targeted, along with other influential figures that the company refused to identify. The historical data that was obtained was then moved to a cloud storage run by a software company, Oracle.
The idea of banning TikTok had been in Congress for years until April of 2024 when former President Joe Biden signed the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The act required TikTok, “unless it sells to a buyer from America or one of its allies,” to be banned starting Jan. 19, 2025. On Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive action that has delayed enforcement of the platform’s ban for 75 days. This aligned with promises he had made prior to his inauguration, although the action starkly contrasted his earlier views: five years prior to this, Trump sought to ban the app over national security concerns.
But even with the 75-day extension, the structure of TikTok has been modified. One significant change is that Apple has already excluded TikTok, Lemon8 and other apps developed by ByteDance from being purchased on the App Store. Even if some students still have those particular apps, they won’t be able to receive regular updates or support. That means that although the apps may remain operable, new bugs will not be able to be fixed, along with other issues. Though Trump signed an executive action that allowed the ByteDance company to sell TikTok within 75 days, he did not, in fact, “save” TikTok. If anything, Trump ignited the fire that resulted in the ban by delivering the problems with TikTok to Congress.
Whilst some users are disregarding the politics behind the ban, it is unequivocal that individuals have become addicted to the short-form social media content offered on TikTok, evident by the recent popularity of a similar platform. Hundreds of thousands of TikTok users have downloaded a Chinese-operated social media platform within a week, which exposes how quickly people jump from one app to another by the mere influence of others. It is a domino effect: one pushes its neighbor, the neighbor pushes the next one, and so on. It continues until all the dominoes are on the floor. This effect is exemplified by the newest replacement of TikTok, RedNote.
RedNote, an alternative social media platform, has recently come to light as ‘TikTok refugee’s,” as they call themselves, have been flocking in. The newest social media platform has ultimately uncovered TikTok users' fear and grief and is now being used as a way to enable further social media addiction. Xiaohongshu, as it is known to the Han Chinese citizens, has a red background with the Mandarin translation of “RedNote.” Though users of the app have been more than willing to welcome the TikTok refugees, the heavy Mandarin usage has spiked Duolingo’s users signing up to learn Mandarin. This is indicative of the lengths that users are willing to go to be able to feed their addiction to the short-form content on TikTok. The layout of RedNote has analogous features to those of TikTok — shopping, going live, sending private messages, etc. — so it is no wonder that it charted No. 1 on the App Store.
Especially since TikTok is nowhere near being “saved,” people should use this time to comprehend the relationship they have with social media. The amount of time that people spend scrolling through their “For You Page” on TikTok is unhealthy. Users should be aware of the time spent on these platforms and limit their social media usage as a whole. The excessive usage has been known to be detrimental to young people’s mental health. Instead of spending hours admiring posts from exes and celebrity figures, it’s time to be more present with in-person interactions, rather than scrolling through curated videos designed to manipulate one’s attention.
Comments