Like the rest of the world, TikTok has effectively taken over my life. I scroll through the app when I walk to class, before bed, and even when I am with friends. It became a means of “turning my brain off” because I could just consume media without having to think about it. I used it as an unhealthy form of escapism to ignore the problems and work I had to face in my reality. This became glaringly evident during finals week.
TikTok had provided me with a platform that I could use as a form of procrastination from my work. When I did not feel like doing work I would “take a break” and go on TikTok for a few minutes, which then turned into a few hours. My whole day felt like it was taken because I would spend so much time on the platform. So I deleted it.
I deleted it at the start of finals week so that I would not be distracted from my work. At first I deleted it with the intention to redownload it after finals week was over. So I got my work done and finished my finals, but when I was sitting at home scrolling through the app I soon realized how little enjoyment I got from the app. Every video felt the same and the audio became overly repetitive. I then realized that the app was not even a means of entertainment anymore but rather something I felt I had to engage in.
Before I deleted it I had realized that my attention span was decimating, only cared about what was trending, and felt so focused on what other people thought. It felt like I was losing a piece of myself everytime I went on the app. Parting with social media will always be difficult. There is always the fear that you will miss out on something, lose your means of entertainment, or feel disconnected from the rest of the world. However this is not the case at all. Parting from TikTok has allowed me to enjoy other aspects of life more and allowed me to relearn how to enjoy meaningful forms of content. Instead of constantly being fed with repetitive content, I now feel free to read more books and watch movies that I’ve been putting off.
Since I’ve deleted TikTok I have been finding joy in other activities that I had neglected because I would have rather just scrolled through TikTok. You don’t realize how much something has taken over your life until you break away from it and realize how little you actually need it. Deleting TikTok has been the best decision I could’ve made for myself, and I encourage you to try it for yourself.