
On Friday, the Supreme Court upheld a law that allows the U.S. government to ban TikTok in the United States. The decision went into effect on Sunday as Apple and Google put the users in the black. Then, as fast as it went into effect, President-elect Donald Trump committed to pause the band with an executive order on Monday. With this commitment, TikTok began restoring services to users following a shutdown that lasted less than 12 hours.Â
What happened today is truly unique. I can not think of a single event in history where a decision was made that freed up so much human capital to do something different. Think about it. There are approximately 170 million TikTok users in the United States. On average, a user spends 56 minutes per day on TikTok. This would mean roughly 80 million hours would be reassigned to do something else on Sunday.
The irony of TikTok being down
For a platform that creates an income for millions by capturing the cursory attention spans of others, its 12-hour recede created 80 million hours;Â refreshing disbelief. As people woke up this morning unable to scroll endlessly, the irony happened - people had to do something else.Â
Â
As I reflect on the decision and how it relates to free speech, I hope the opportunity was leveraged by most. I am confident that some applied their captured hour to rediscover a hobby that they had lost touch with for months. I hope others braved the snow with a walk, opened a new book, or spent the day making homemade beef broth by memory from a TikTok video they saw yesterday.Â
The irony is hard to miss. For a platform that inspires individuals to share their cleaning hacks, things to cook on a cold day, or how their dog responds to an Amazon truck, it took its absence to push individuals to apply an hour into action versus just watching. TikTok's downtime may have served as an accidental reminder that we do not need to simply watch a 60-second to live. Instead, we must move.
TikTok returned as fast as it went away
Of course, once the app was back online, most sprinted back to their mobile device, eager to share what occurred within their productive day without TikTok. But for a brief, ironic moment, life outside the algorithm might not have been that bad. Or better yet, it might have been better.Â
Maybe our society and our cultures need a few resets like this per year or make it a component of "dry January." A computer needs a reboot to update programs, security, and glitches. Maybe we all need a system reboot to remind us who we are and where we are going. Or maybe, I am too optimistic. Everyone might have just pivoted to Instagram today. I hope not.Â
.
Comentários