I am laughing at every single one of you who truly thought TikTok was getting banned. Yes, it was a long 12 hours, but it is back up and running — except for those who deleted it — after y’all spilled your dirty little secrets. The “ban” was threatened a few times in the previous years, everyone shedding tears in fear they would be broke moving back to their parents’ basement and begging current subscribers to flock to Instagram for a follow. To none of my surprise, it was all a hoax, and it has become something of a ritualistic habit to too easily believe what social media tells us.
Social media can be a beautiful place of information, laughter and togetherness, but few know how to decipher lies from truth. To get famous, as Lexi Hidalgo and other TikTokers showed us, you gotta fake it till you make it, and so many of us soak that up.
We all love the gossip, tea and commercial relief that social media is. It’s an escape from our problems of school work, sadness and friendship drama. We, in a way, are transported into another realm, and for a few short minutes, we are more concerned over other people’s tragedies than our own. We are more enthused about the girl who “Got DZ,” a teddy graham latte or the mom on TikTok showing you what she made her preschooler for lunch. Yes, I do realize those are niche topics, but I have an odd For You page.
That’s the whole beauty of social media. We can live vicariously through others as they present their surface-level issues. But when we allow those commercial problems and concerns of strangers to seep into our self and emotions, trouble starts to brew.
I will easily admit to being influenced by social media. I have bought countless tops, fallen into the Stanley trend and now have an extensive coffee bar in my dorm all due to influence, but I still remain myself inside and out.
But for many wanting to obtain that picture-perfect life, seeing someone else’s glorified aesthetic in an Instagram story or 30-second TikTok is so appealing that we lose the ability to differentiate influence and obsession. When you become obsessed with how the people on your 2D display live their lives, you slowly lose focus of all the important real-life aspects that surround you in the physical world.
We want to believe each and every influencer is like us — that they get us. And yes, I agree that you can relate to parts of a person, but when a person reaches a level of following or desire to influence out of greed, they do not have the best interests of their followers in mind.
In today’s world, we have to work tirelessly to sort out the truth and lies in our media. I know I so badly want to believe that the fad diets work, that sleeping with socks in my hair creates perfect curls, that an outfit will look just as good on me as compared to the 5-foot-9 blonde with a ring light and that it’s possible to manage work, school and extracurriculars in college. I too want to be naive that what I look at is a reflection and not a video. Social media lies to me time and time again, yet I still run back to it.
I implore you all to be careful of what social media wants from you and instead embrace what you want from it. Buy the jacket off TikTok Shop, waste your money on a Dunkin’ butter pecan and blueberry latte that may taste horrible or use it as a break in between study seshes. Social media is a powerful tool if you use it right, but keep checking in to see if you are using it in your best interest or if it’s just making your life harder.