Tik Tok has quickly risen in popularity and is now one of the most popular social media apps in the world. Tik Tok has become a safe space where people can share their thoughts and interests with the world, whether it’s gaming, lifestyle, comedy, politics, the list goes on. Not only that but people find and build communities through trends. An article written by Lacey Sponaugle and Saran Kabba titled, “Summer 2024 Trends: What’s In and What’s Out”, well depicts a lot of these popular trends. Trends like “BRAT Summer” and “Demure” are just two examples of the community on Tik Tok that so many people today value.
The Supreme Court wanted to ban Tik Tok to stop Tik Tok’s parent company ByteDance from stealing Americans information. The solution the Supreme court propsed for keeping Tik Tok in the U.S. was ByteDance selling the American portion of Tik Tok to new non-Chinese owners. Elon Musk, James Donaldson (MrBeast), Kevin O’leary, and few others have shown interest in buying Tik Tok but so far no progress has been made on those claims.
After hearing of the ban many creators voiced their disappointment and how much Tik Tok has meant to them. The creator Tabitha Swatosh (@tabithaswatosh on Tik Tok) has said, “This little teeny tiny little thing on our phone changed my whole life and my family’s life, the person who described it like a little community, it is.” Spencer Hudson (@_spencerhudson on Tik Tok), Another popular creator on Tik Tok said, “Tik Tok, the thing that brought me out of depression, pays for my college, pays for my rent, made me so much more confident in myself as a person is possibly turing off in an hour and might not ever come back on.” Clearly Tik Tok has changed the lives of these people and many more and its absence won’t be easy on them.
On January 18th Tik Tok was shut down and when users entered Tik Tok they would see a screen saying, “Sorry Tik Tok isn’t available right now”. Many people thought that would be the end of Tik Tok but roughly 12 hours later on January 19 Tik Tok came back on with a “Welcome back!” message. The message also wrote,“As a result of president Trumps efforts, Tik Tok is back in the U.S.!”. This came to no ones surprise as Trump has stated that once in office he would work on bringing Tik Tok back.
Despite that, this made many people uneasy because users feel as if this message was meant to make Trump more popular among younger generations. A 90 day extension was given on Tik Tok and within those days President Trump will work on a permanent solution to keep Tik Tok in the U.S. While the future of Tik Tok is unknown students at ERHS keep their hopes high.
Kailey Perdomoflores, a freshman at ERHS said, “I don’t see why not, I think he could” when asked if she thinks president Trump will successfully bring back Tik Tok in the U.S. “Yea I think so, because he already said he has plans to do so,” said Johnny Earnest, a junior at ERHS.
TikTok has been a meaningful and life changing app for a countless number of people and with hope of its remain the U.S. keeps their spirits high!