Photo Courtesy of Free Malaysia Today

On Jan. 19, TikTok was banned for around 12 hours, was taken off of all app stores and access was denied for all users. “I use TikTok for entertainment, and [when it was banned], I didn’t know what to do with my life. I was very bored and it was not fun,” Amila Gusic (11) said. According to goverment officials, TikTok must negotiate a sale with a US company before the April 5, 2025 deadline in order to stay active.

On Jan. 19, the Supreme Court was set to make a decision on if the social media app TikTok will be banned or not. TikTok, previously known as Musical.ly, has been around for about a decade now, and it is not the first time speculations have arisen concerning the safety of the 170 million Americans on the app. However, many are wondering if the nation’s security was really at risk, or if it was all a publicity stunt to cover something larger. 

“The actual ban itself, I get it, but I also don’t get it. I have conflicted opinions about it. The United States government is saying it’s a national security concern, which I believe is just a lie,” math teacher Tyler Lingle said. “There are other apps, like the number one most downloaded app right now, RedNote, that are owned by Chinese companies. Everything about it is Chinese, which is fine, but they are banning TkTok because it is owned by a Chinese company that they don’t support, unlike this other app, which they are doing nothing about.”

Other teachers have similar opinions, or even choose to believe the “ban” wasn’t a ban at all. 

“That wasn’t a ban. They chose to take themselves offline for 12 hours because they wanted assurance from the US government that there would be a delay on the implementation of the bill,” AP Government teacher Kara Beck said. “I felt like it was very politically savvy of TikTok to take themselves off the market, or deny service for 12 hours, but it wasn’t required by law.”

Although there are varying opinions on the 12-hour ban, TikTok is a well-loved app that many people, students and teachers alike, use for a multitude of reasons. Some of those include news, entertainment or even for a source of income. 

“Mostly [I used it for] entertainment, but I used it as my main source of news, too. I can get things from the Washington Post, New York Times and [other] things that are reputable, so I would believe them and I would be able to know what is going on in the world,” Lingle said. 

While adults might use it more from a news perspective, students and other teens found the app to be a great place to support other creators and take a break from the stressors of daily life. 

“I use TikTok for entertainment, and [when it was banned], I didn’t know what to do with my life. I was very bored and it was not fun,” Amila Gusic (11) said. “I don’t think there is anything bad about TikTok. I use it a lot. My screen time says 15 hours a week.”

While entertainment is important and is needed for a healthy work/life balance, 15 hours a week may seem like too much time spent scrolling on a singular app, which is why many students found the ban to be refreshing, as it opened their eyes to the effects of their doomscrolling. 

“[The ban] wasn’t a big deal to me because I am not on my phone that often and I was with my friends, so I didn’t really notice,” Sophie Lampe (11) said. “I feel like it’s nice to have it banned just so people get off their phones, and I think it has shortened people’s attention spans because the videos are short. People are less likely to focus.”

This focus issue has been around for a long time, but TikTok has only heightened the shortened attention span worldwide. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 31 percent of teens said they lost focus in class because they were checking their cell phones, and 49 percent said using technology for reasons unrelated to class, or “off-task” use, was distracting to them. Throughout the school day, and even the work day, people are willing to take breaks for a quick scroll, which can ultimately cause productivity to go down in the workplace as well as at school. 

“The only con of TikTok, the con of all social media, is that it’s built to be addictive and it can be limiting in getting stuff done in your actual life,” Beck said. “I think it’s the main reason we need to have a cell phone policy in this building, I would say. I don’t think you realize how much time you’ve lost to it, because it’s entertaining, so you can choose to do that instead of doing something more productive.”

More issues arise with the thought of a future permanent ban, including the effects it will have on small businesses and small content creators, those who made a name for themselves and might have that name taken away. 

“The non-mainstream media, your small creator media that were TikTok-focused, you know their faces but not their names. I think it is really hurting our small content creators. Your Mr. Beasts are out there no matter what, but the small creators are not, which is not good,” Lingle said. “So people who built their fame up on TikTok, that [might be] gone in the near future. There is a big difference between small business and big business, and since content creation is becoming its own business, a permanent ban might just straight up disintegrate a lot of small creators and businesses. Now only the big ones can thrive, which I believe is an issue not talked about in the government enough. It should be because it’s economics at its finest.”

Although this quick ban was refreshing for some and nerve-wracking for others, it was over as soon as it started, and the endless scroll seemed to start up once more. However, the app might not last as long as we think, for it was only given 75 days through an executive order by President Trump to halt Congress’ ban. It is uncertain what the app will look like down the road, or who will take control, but for now, both creators as well as consumers, are happy it is back. The real question comes back to the main need for the “ban” in the first place, and if it was necessary at all. 

“I just don’t think a complete ban would be the best option, but that there needs to be more government parameters around social media or media companies and how much access they have to us,” Beck said. “I think that the expectations of data privacy and the access the government has to it should apply to American-owned companies as well. If we’re going to say China should not be able to have access to data and browsing, then we should say the same thing to American-owned companies like Meta. [There needs to be] more consistency in our tech policy.”