Picture teens waking up to a world where the endless scroll of TikTok dances, viral challenges and funny videos has come to a halt. The good news: On April 5, Trump announced that TikTok will get a 75-day extension since companies like Amazon and Oracle are possible bidders for the app.
For now, TikTok is still available but should it eventually disappear, what’s a screen-tapping teenager to do?
Vidonia Thompson, a junior, is one of many teenagers who use the app everyday and enjoys sending videos to her friends to gain streaks or just for fun. “TikTok definitely has a reason to stay,” she says. “There’s absolutely no reason why it should go, it’s offered many jobs to people, maybe even gotten people out of poverty.”
Thompson feels the app has been used so much by teens that it has become engraved into their brains. “It’s definitely muscle memory to open this app so it’s just gonna feel like a piece of our everyday lives is missing again. As a teen I obviously don’t watch the news, so I get the news from TikTok usually, and now without TikTok I may not be seeing the other parts the news outlets don’t show us.”
TikTok offers AI generated news and current events to teenagers to bring them more awareness of their surroundings. “Seeing into other people’s lives was really a big part of what TikTok gave to us.” If a company or brand did not clarify to buy over TikTok by April 5 the app was fully going into effect of ban due to the law in place. During election season, Trump credited the app to gain young voters. The app was then said to be banned on January 19 but was extended for 75 days of use, however it was not allowed to be downloaded on any app store.
Originally, TikTok was claimed to be banned because of national security reasons. The national security found it as a threat since it seemed as if the U.S. was sharing government information with China.
Back in January, Microsoft announced they wanted to buy over TikTok. Microsoft soon stepped away from the deal since ByteDance [parent company of TikTok] was unwilling to hand over the app to another company and the U.S. government was changing their requirement. The Supreme Court, after announcing there will be a law to ban TikTok, followed up with the idea to ban ByteDance and CapCut.
Just 9 days after the app reappeared 12 hours later after potential ban, Elon Musk was given the opportunity to repurchase the app to save the company. Musk was not interested in buying the app since he was more focused on building his companies. Soon after, bids were being brought up for TikTok. Mr. Beast [Jimmy Donaldson] was inserted in repurchasing the app at a valuable offer. He then joined the American Investor Group to try and win over the app.
A month later on Feb. 13, TikTok reappeared on Google and Apple app stores. The app being up and running again on app stores encouraged more individuals to download the app.
Agreeably, a lot of teens feel the same way. Ayden Lema, a junior, says “I think the TikTok ban will influence a lot of the daily trends and spread of new ideas with many ideas spanning from TikTok. Many things wouldn’t have been developed if it hadn’t been for TikTok” he said. The ban of the app might affect teenagers’ creative side since a huge community of TikTok is their arts. “I think it will affect me because I won’t be able to search how to create something or a tutorial for something,” he said.
For now, it’s back to endless scrolling for the millions of teens who call TikTok ‘home’ – until the 75 days run out.
