TikTok temporarily suspended service in the United States beginning Saturday night. By Sunday, the app was already coming back online after its brief and voluntary shutdown in response to the ban said to take effect on January 19.
When I attempted to open the app early Sunday morning, I felt an instant sense of relief. Not because I wanted anyone depending on income from TikTok to suffer or because anyone deserved to lose out on their go-to form of entertainment. I, at least momentarily, felt absolutely no pressure to come up with yet another post idea for the platform.
As a consumer, TikTok can be fun and, if you're careful about it, quite informative. I enjoy a good healthy doom scroll every now and then. As a creator, however, TikTok has become absolutely exhausting to use. For anyone hoping to grow their audience on the app or -- if lucky enough -- make money off the content they post there, the work that goes into reaching those goals can start to feel soul-crushing. Sometimes an hour or two of work can generate maybe a thousand views and a few followers, if even that. It's a slow, highly demanding job.
That doesn't mean the job isn't worth it for many people. But now that TikTok is back -- after months of speculation that the ban really would keep it inaccessible maybe for good -- a lot of creators and consumers alike are questioning whether or not the app is the place they want to stay. Many are wondering why TikTok really came back in less than a day. It's not wrong to question these things. It's not wrong to wonder what the right thing to do really is.
Staying on the app is worth it if you're using it for the right reasons. Sharing verified information, helping people, making the digital space a little better with every new piece of content you post. I don't know if I'll continue using it the way I was, or as much as I was. The question still remains: What's really the better alternative?