Several weeks ago, American culture as we know it was changed forever, and then put back almost exactly the same way. TikTok, the social media platform that has gained over 1.9 billion global users since its release in September 2016, was briefly banned nationwide by the U.S. government due to concerns about its parent company’s ties to the Chinese government. It’s hard to overstate the cultural impact TikTok has had, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. From music to food to last year’s election, the video-sharing app influences nearly every sphere of popular culture. And although the TikTok ban was intended to improve national security and protect American users, many Potomac students took the loss hard.
In the days before the ban, the Current spoke with a few students about their opinions. “I think I’m addicted to TikTok,” said junior Hafsa Abdulkadir. “[The ban] is actually a good thing for me because it’s going to force me to get off of TikTok and actually do my homework.” However, she did add that she “will miss the videos that [she has] saved and [her] drafts.”
Junior Maddy Sadler had a different perspective. “I understand the reasoning,” she said, “but I feel like for a lot of people, [TikTok] is a safe space or an escape from the real world because there’s a lot of pressure in our lives. So while I understand the reasoning, I don’t fully support [the ban].”
A little over 12 hours after it went down, TikTok came back online, though users who had deleted the app couldn’t initially redownload it. Two students reflected on the experience of not being able to use TikTok. “I like TikTok too much to be able to delete it myself,” one student explained. “I need it to be forcefully deleted from my phone for me to not go on it anymore. I will never delete it myself because I’m too attached to it.”
Although TikTok is back for now, its future is still unclear. President Trump extended the ban for 75 days, but the app could be wrested out of our hands yet again—for good this time.
