The Return of The Computer Room
Tik Tok may already be back, but the entire situation has me ready to radically change my attention diet.
On January 18th, I let my screen time be whatever it was going to be. As someone with a platform over there, and with minimal building up of other platforms, I felt some anxiety and disappointment both of losing connection to my followers as well as my favorite creators. I’ve learned so much from Tik Tok content, from writing there, and from the comment sections. It is a third space in the internet in many ways, at least more so than other places.
This morning, I felt an odd sense of excitement, knowing the ban had gone into effect overnight. A few times as I had my morning coffee and read articles here or my physical current read, I found myself automatically going to the folder where TikTok has lived in my phone. I’d open it, and the ban notice would reappear, all before I consciously knew what I was doing. As much as I don’t want to app banned or further consolidation via Meta, I also found encountering a closed door digitally brought with it a sense of relief.
Oh, there isn’t endless scrolling, searching for the right bit or clip of entertainment. There’s some boredom here I can’t entertain myself out of.