no, i'm not downloading tiktok
to be clear, this isn't an anti-china post or whatever.
i just wish friends and family would stop sending me tiktok links. they don't even let me play the tiktok in a browser! every time i click that oversized, gray play button, it insists i download and install tiktok onto my phone. every single time.
and i'm not going to do that. i didn't do it back when tiktok rose to fame and gave everyone a voice, and i'm not doing it now.
there's something so sinister about tiktok. to be honest, i don't trust that app. i think it's so much more malleable to becoming a beacon for weird political causes than most other prominent social media apps and platforms. i also think it has made it so much easier for people who shouldn't be speaking publicly to speak publicly and be heard.
i don't trust tiktok and i don't like that corner of the internet at all. and i'm generally really open-minded about my social media apps, i swear. i've been on myspace and friendster and classic, farmville facebook. i've been on askfm and curiouscat and am yet to escape twitter. when threads and bluesky were proposed as healthy alternatives to post-elon twitter, i immediately made accounts, even if i didn't end up using them as much as i thought i would.
but tiktok... that's where i draw the line.
i can't explain it, and i promise it's a little more than the negative effects of tiktok "brainrot" on our cognitive and mental health, though i think that should be a big enough factor for most other people.
i just do not trust tiktok, and i don't think i'll ever change my mind. and this isn't a dig at anyone who does trust and use and enjoy tiktok, which is a lot of people, really. i don't know. i just have the constant feeling that things would be so much better if tiktok went down or ceased to exist at any point in time. i'm sorry!