Right now TikTok is all the rage. It is being talked about by everyone and even is making national news because it might possibly be banned by our government because of its ties to China and the possibility that our geo-political rival might be downloading all of our data. But tell you what: I’m not going to wait around for the feds to ban it. I’m going to do something that might be radical for someone of my own generation: I’m banning TikTok from my life — because it’s quite inane and so very lame.  

After all: What is the hype really about? People are just watching 15- to 60-second long videos for hours at a time. It’s true that there are many different sides to TikTok and it is possible to have anything from dancing videos to strange animated subway surfer storytimes on your “For You” page — a page that is based on your “liked” content and that features an insidious way to suggest more possibly addicting videos for you. It’s clear that this is how they pull people in and get them hooked but is it too hard to just stop?

The strange videos are just a waste of time but the dancing videos have had a huge impact on the real world. At soccer practice, restaurants, waiting in line for ice cream, driving down the road, walking in the park — everywhere you look there are people making Tik Toks, talking about Tik Toks, or doing the dances they learned on the app. Call me crazy but the whole spectacle of this is exhausting and annoying.

Kids these days should find better things to do than stare at their phones all day. After all, spending the day at Zoom school, only for students to go on their phones afterward to sit there for more hours just watching videos on a tiny screen and laughing and singing to yourself — it all makes no.sense. What happened to reading a book or even doing homework? Are these things of the past? 

Even when a phone is not in the hands of a ‘TikTok’-er, these app users are singing the current songs and dancing the current moves. Maybe, in reality, the annoyance stems from the songs being so catchy, and after hearing a song once it gets stuck inside of your head all day. No matter. The point there is that there is no point to TikTok. If the government banned the app, maybe kids would go back to doing other non-phone related things. Hey people, look up: There literally is this thing called “outside.” Breaking news: there is something that goes beyond the virtual. It’s called “reality” so I’m putting down my phone and checking that out for a while. (Please join me and — if you can’t do that — please don’t make a TikTok of me doing that.)