In the great year of 2025, it seems as if we are headed towards our first major culture shock. The fantastic app of TikTok is approaching its slow downfall. TikTok is slated to be banned on January 19th, as a result of its parent company being forced to sell the app, or face a ban. This ruling is due to national security concerns stemming from Tik Tok being owned by a Chinese company. Across the app, avid users are up in arms about this ban, claiming that TikTok has in fact played a positive role in their lives. Many users are wondering where they will be able to go when the seemingly inevitable ban of TikTok comes. User Z’sdigitalvids commented on a very depressing tiktok about noticing things that “reels could never replicate this”. This comment refers to Instagram’s short form content page, Instagram Reels. This feeling comes from the fact that TikTok seems to provide a specific form of content that is impossible to find anywhere else. A recent trend on TikTok also has been started reminding people of the greatest TikTok trends to ever exist. On that note, if you are ever looking for a funny reminder of a great trend, I would suggest looking up late night sneaker meetups and remembering those videos.
There may, however, still be some hope for TikTok. President elect Donald Trump has said that he would not be favor of TikTok’s ban despite previously having imposed sanctions on the app.
It has now been two days and TikTok has been through a lot. It was suspended briefly on Friday night before being quickly reinstated the following morning. The total time of ban was about fourteen hours. For many students at Christ Church, the problem goes beyond this suspension. Senior Payne Hornish said on Thursday afternoon that he was “kinda glad it’s getting banned, I’m gonna get a lot more productive”. It is unknown currently whether the app is back on his phone, or if he deleted it once it was suspended. Some of the student body are glad that TikTok has made its return however, and never deleted it in the first place. As predicted, Instagram Reels simply did not have the same heart throbbing content as TikTok. Steve Bracknell was absent from the app, which was absolutely devastating to me personally. I also missed my Rocket League content. President Trump has said that he would “approve the United States owning half of TikTok”. This also may create controversy as TikTok is a massive multi-billion dollar platform. This would also seemingly allow the positives of TikTok to continue to flourish while also answering any national security concerns that are attached to it.
