I’m bummed I won’t be able to utilize it for further research or exploration of ideas. And I’m sad for the harm done to these online communities. Humans are constantly looking for connection, and it hurts to have that connection severed.

It doesn’t have the same cultural baggage and expectations that instagram or other sites have, so it allowed for that independent development and creation. You could do anything, be anyone, and interact with anything.

TikTok is unique in how it allowed for the development of natural communities, people were able to curate their interests and interactions in ways that other apps don’t allow for.

It’s such a loss from a cultural research standpoint. And like yeah it’s still up in other countries, but I’m not in those other counties. A huge chunk of users have just been forcibly removed, and the digital communities they are involved in are harmed as a result.