Many of us college students have had TikTok, previously known as Musical.ly, since middle school. What started as an app filled with dancing videos, funny skits, and trends has become a space for many users to share interests, find inspiration, and even get news. The app has a wide variety of music that people use to create all kinds of different content. In the case of college students, there’s access to educational videos, international news, and a ton of communities that young adults can identify with and learn more about themselves. However, this important part of college students’ daily lives was recently banned in the United States, but then brought back in an unexpected way, leaving us with many different perspectives on the situation.
College Students’ Opinions.
After conducting a survey on a handful of college students at the University of South Florida, there have been a lot of mixed opinions on the TikTok ban and revival. Being that the app has been a big part of young adults’ routines, with 50% of respondents using it for one to three hours a day, there’s concern about the loss of a platform that provides so many benefits. Students have found an escape during stressful times like exam season and more. There’s been so much history with this app and the impact it has had, one student stating that the ban was “a scheme for the government to attempt to control a platform that is powerful and loved.” Not only was the loss of entertainment a concern, but one student remarked that it “provided a platform for common people to share information; news that are not talked about in the TV.” Some common genres appearing on respondents’ for-you pages prior to the ban were comedy and memes, beauty, international politics, and even university content. However, after returning to the app, one respondent claimed that “the algorithm seems a bit different, and the searching has definitely been censored.” While a TikTok spokesperson told NewsWeek that the algorithm and the app’s policies haven’t gone through any changes in the 12 hours that it went dark, college respondents have their doubts. Some have expressed their opinions on it possibly being a government scheme or even a method to silence users that have spread awareness about issues that disagreeing politicians view as “un-American.”
The TikTok ban.
Talks of banning TikTok date back to 2020, where President Donald J. Trump confirmed that the U.S. was considering banning the app to punish China over COVID-19. That same year, he issued an official executive order to ban the app because of believed data gathering and censorship by the Chinese Communist Party. The situation became an ongoing chain of events over the span of four years of attempts to ban TikTok. It isn’t until April of 2024 where the U.S. Senate finally passed legislation, signed into law by former President Biden, forcing TikTok to be banned if it wasn’t sold to a U.S. company. Despite going into effect the night of January 18th as everyone expected, users received a “Welcome Back” pop-up upon launching the app the next morning.
TikTok’s role in college students’ lives.
Despite being priorly known as Musical.ly, it wasn’t until 2018 that TikTok became the app it is now. It is considered to be a platform where users could be “inspired by diverse communities and discover new ideas, products and places.” It provides freedom for creators to publish any content they want, going from 15 seconds to now having 1-10 minute options. Tons of users can be found experiencing the app, with content from any community you could imagine. TikTok has impacted college students greatly, especially being that 36.7% of TikTok’s users are aged 18-24. The app has changed aspects of many college students’ lives, with 40% of Generation Z using the app over the Google search engine to find information. This means users have an increased consumption of news, new knowledge on topics, and even information on lifestyle aspects like fashion, health, and beauty. The app has allowed searching for otherwise boring information to be engaging and enjoyable, as content is under a time limit where creators must try harder to get peoples’ attention. In the area of news, the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in May of 2020 was one of the first major social issues that had an impact on the app. Influencers and users took to the platform to spread awareness, share resources, and educate others on the unfair systematic treatment of Black people in America. To add more fuel to the fire, the world was facing the beginnings of the COVID-19 virus, causing widespread panic. Since then, many more social, political, and humanitarian issues have gained traction and sparked controversy on the app. One of our USFSP respondents expressed that TikTok has “given a platform to many great people…and even political movements,” including some social issues “like standing up for Palestinians and not being super sympathetic towards the United Healthcare CEO.” As the fate of TikTok and what it’ll become is still unknown, the controversy sparks the debate between freedom of speech and the need for regulation in this increasingly digital age.
For USF students that are finding their way through the rollercoaster that college life can be, TikTok has become an outlet for them to enjoy all the possibilities and awareness the app can bring. The ban has left them with many questions surrounding the true reasonbehind it, but overall, USF students feel the app can continue to bring so much good for users of all interests and walks of life.