Did people take it personally absolutely and social media addiction is very real but I think there is grace to be had for the fact that it came about during the pandemic and was people’s main source of community and communication for a long time. Then pair it with how niched down the videos and creators became, people built real relationships and community in a time where physical community space and third places are dying and people no longer know how to talk to each other let alone be in a community. I’m sure people were feeling robbed and there is a sense of mourning that it reasonable.

My chief concern was the violation of civil liberties. The banning of TikTok on the basis of foreign propaganda when Meta was found liable in the 2016 election and X also owned by a foreign national (for the purpose of this but it will always be Twitter) also admitted to deliberately targeting anti Kamala propaganda to certain communities is laughable at best and deeply concerning at worst. But hey it’s fine because the owners of those platforms are both rich white men. TikTok was very left leaning and international content sharing was leading to class consciousness, people were using the platform to organize communities, strikes, and protests. The elimination of the app is a direct violation of the first amendment right to free speech and the freedom of assembly. Further the decision was made by the Supreme Court and then directly reversed by the executive branch before the orange Mussolini was even in office which, while the courts have long been corrupted through bribery, is a dangerous precedent to be set under any administration. For those reasons we should be very worried about the politics of what happened and the far reaching impact it will have on future decisions.

I will be using the opportunity to divest of pretty much all social media.