Recent news that has people wondering what is going to happen is the ongoing attempt to ban popular social media platform, TikTok, in the United States. There are people that are all for banning TikTok and they’re others that think quite the opposite. This platform is very popular amongst the younger generations and might impact them in very different ways, some professionally and some just for entertainment purposes.
The real question is should they just completely ban TikTok or should they continue with their plan to just not upgrade it?
“I think it’s better that they’re just leaving it to slowly die instead of instantly banning it because it gives creators time to switch platforms so that their salaries aren’t hurt by the change,” senior Zachary Gallego said.
This just doesn’t affect people for entertainment purposes; this is costing people their jobs, the way they live.
“I think it would be better to not update it instead of completely banning it, like Vine,” senior Martha Tadesse said. “It lets people save any special memories they have on it.”
Will this TikTok craze be really impactful for viewers or will it just get replaced by something else that is more “trendy” or popular? This has happened a lot with different platforms that just died off and got replaced by another app.
“When Vine died, musical.ly came, then TikTok,” Tadesse said. “I think an American version that is very similar to TikTok will come out in a few years.”
This will just cause viewers to just jump to another platform like they normally do. Others might take another route. Some viewers might see this as an opportunity to do other things with their time, like transitioning to books or even movies and show apps.
“The main apps I would replace it with would be my show apps like Netflix or Max,” senior Sarah Ruiz said, “I’m more of a show person because with TikTok I waste more time since you keep scrolling and don’t realize how much you scrolled til you see the time.”
The main concern is the different ways many people’s lives will be affected, since, according to Tadasse, “TikTok is a form of entertainment and a safe space for many.”
