In the United States, more than 150 million people are facing the possibility of a new reality: life without TikTok.
The popular video app is at the center of an ongoing battle, with lawmakers calling for an outright ban and the company portraying itself as a critical community space, educational platform and just plain fun.
In Hong Kong, you don’t have to imagine this reality: TikTok discontinued its services there in 2020.
His abrupt departure was met with mixed reactions: disappointment from some users and content creators, but also relief from others who say life is better without the app’s infinite scroll.
At the time of its launch, TikTok had a relatively modest presence in the city and was not as ubiquitous as it is today in the US.
But the mixed reactions to his departure and the way users have migrated to other platforms or even real-life communities offer Americans a glimpse of their potential future without TikTok.
missed opportunities
TikTok announced its departure from Hong Kong in July 2020, a week after China imposed a controversial national security law on the city.
The decision came as the app sought to distance itself from China and its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance, in the face of mounting pressure on the US under the Trump administration.
But that came to a screeching halt for creators like Shivani Dukhande, who had around 45,000 followers at the time the app left Hong Kong.
Dukhande, 25, saw her account take off in early 2020 during the pandemic with lifestyle content such as cooking and wellness videos.
“There were a lot of new creators emerging. We used to collaborate together, we had a chat [em grupo] where we all talked and exchanged ideas and it created a community,” she said.
Momentum began to build. Companies began looking for the young woman, paying for sponsored content and collaborating on advertising campaigns. Brands began to partner with creators on trend “challenges” in an attempt to attract new young consumers.
“More people were joining in and it was becoming such a fun thing to do. So, kind of [o app] left one morning,” he reported.
“If it continued, I probably could have earned enough to give up my regular job. If I had the chance to grow up, it could have been a potential career.”
That’s one of the main arguments TikTok has made in recent weeks in the US.
In March, as the company’s CEO prepared to testify before Congress, TikTok produced a documentary series highlighting American small business owners who depend on the platform for their livelihoods.
The platform is used by nearly five million businesses in the United States, TikTok reported in March. And it’s on the cusp of outperforming rivals: London-based research firm Omdia projected in November that the app’s advertising revenues will exceed the combined video ad revenues of Meta — home of Facebook and Instagram — and YouTube. until 2027.
This is in part because people are spending more time on TikTok. In Q2 2022, users around the world spent an average of 95 minutes a day on the app, according to data analytics firm SensorTower — nearly twice as much time as users spent on Facebook and Instagram.
But in Hong Kong, other platforms have emerged to fill the gap. Reels, Instagram’s short-form video product with TikTok-like features like infinite scrolling, is growing fast — and Dukhande has jumped on board.
She had to rebuild her audience from scratch and now has 12,500 Instagram followers, but feels optimistic about growth. Still, the TikTok affair was a “missed opportunity,” she pointed out, and the growing community of creators faded from view.
“The amount of jobs, the amount of content creation, the amount of marketing opportunities that existed with TikTok – we kind of missed that whole part,” he continued.
Impact on young people
But for some people, the departure of TikTok was a welcome change.
Poppy Anderson, 16, has been using the app since its launch in 2018. And, like many others of her generation, she spent hours “scrolling and scrolling” the screen – even when she felt dissatisfied.
“It was very easy to find exactly what you like there, because the For You page [executada por algoritmo] keeps you there. And it’s fun, but you don’t really gain anything from it,” she explained.
She described TikTok as an often toxic environment that breeds narrow thinking, herd mentality, a misguided “cancel culture” and inappropriate online behavior, such as criticizing the bodies of girls and women.
Even people she knew in real life began to act differently after joining the app, which hurt friendships, according to the young woman.
Martin Poon, 15, also got tired of TikTok, but it was hard to stop. “Everyone was using it, so I feel like there’s a sense that you have to use it, you have to be in control of things, you have to know what’s going on. And I think that was stressful for me,” he stated.
Misinformation and misogyny ran rampant on TikTok, with accounts like those of Andrew Tate, the self-styled “alpha male” recently arrested in Romania on charges of human trafficking and rape, gaining popularity among the boys at Poon’s school.
“It’s just about how [essas contas] have so much impact on young people, and have so much control over what we think and how it affects our behavior,” pondered Poon – although he added that misinformation is a huge problem on all social media, not just TikTok.
Experts have long been concerned about TikTok’s impact on young people’s mental health, with one study claiming the app can reveal potentially harmful content related to suicide and eating disorders to teens within minutes of creating an account.
In response to mounting pressure, the platform recently announced a one-hour daily screen limit for users under 18, although they can opt out of this default setting.
Anderson acknowledged some positives about TikTok, like open conversations about mental health. Still, she was happy when the app became inaccessible. Falling asleep just got easier without the lure of TikTok. “I didn’t have the self-control to stop on my own,” she said.
exploring passions
For Poon and her friend Ava Chan, also 15, the demise of TikTok has ushered in new beginnings.
When the app discontinued services in 2020, they were taking classes online, isolated from friends and bored at home. At the time, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts had yet to reach Hong Kong.
“We had to figure out how to use our time beyond being on TikTok. For us, that was exploring our passions more,” said Chan.
For both, it came to the defense of the neurodiverse community. They have launched a club at school that promotes neurodiversity education and awareness, as well as participating in volunteer activities with neurodiverse people.
Both said it gave them a sense of purpose, and over time they saw other benefits.
Her friends, who previously spent time filming and watching TikToks together, started having more face-to-face conversations. They noticed that colleagues began to exercise more outdoors, which became easier when the Covid-19 restrictions were lifted. Also, his mental health has improved.
Of course, being teenagers, they’re not entirely off social media and using it as a tool to promote their club – but it’s a far cry from the past hours of scrolling.
And while they occasionally wonder what’s happening on TikTok outside of Hong Kong, the allure of it is lost when no one else around them uses it.
“A lot of people just forgot about it, People switch to different platforms – or they just move on,” concluded Anderson
Source: CNN Brasil
Charles Grill is a tech-savvy writer with over 3 years of experience in the field. He writes on a variety of technology-related topics and has a strong focus on the latest advancements in the industry. He is connected with several online news websites and is currently contributing to a technology-focused platform.
