On January 18 at about 10:30 p.m., TikTok officially died in the United States, and 170 million Americans suddenly had to find something else to do with their free time. For about 14 hours, anyway.
Parent company ByteDance resurrected the platform the following day, and President Donald Trump officially approved a 90-day extension after his inauguration on Jan. 20. But if TikTok is your digital drug of choice and you found yourself struggling to make it 14 hours without a fix, it might be time to consider life with a little less or even no TikTok — regardless of what happens when the 90 day clock runs out.
Whether some users are literally addicted to TikTok (or any social media platform) is an open question among experts, but TikTok's brutally effective algorithm and features are designed to attract eyeballs and keep users scrolling. According to Statista, users spent an average of at least an hour per day on the app. So what happens when a federal ban leaves that kind of a hole in your daily routine?
As therapist Arianna Galligher, LISW, told Health, users might feel anxious or even a little depressed in the short term as they find themselves motivated to pick up their phones and start scrolling through a now-defunct app. And others who used TikTok to connect with others might find themselves feeling isolated.
But even though you may experience some initial doldrums if TikTok goes away for good, you might feel a little bit better with one less social media platform in your life. Perhaps your body image will improve if you spend less time watching fitness influencers, or you'll discover that the must-have objects that your favorite content creators can't live without are totally optional after all.
TikTok's potential disappearance also provides an enormous opportunity for other social media companies to try and capture your eyeballs. But the best opportunity may fall to you — an extra hour every day to put down the phone and experience real life.
