The Supreme Court has upheld a law that could ban TikTok in the United States. With so much uncertainty surrounding the app's future here, I haven’t been able to grasp its colossal impact on my life. It wasn’t until I began to mentally chronicle my early days on the app that I realized the full scope of what we would be losing. 

I swore to myself I’d never download TikTok. It was late in 2018, about the time the Chinese-owned app had merged with Musical.ly and the promotion for the app became inescapable, especially on YouTube. It felt like TikTok was being forced down my throat, which made me detest it even more. 

I eventually caved to the aggressive marketing in early 2019, but I swore to myself I wouldn’t create an account (another promise I’d go back on). What I found in my initial time on the app was something I hadn’t really seen before. There was a certain ease and approachability to it. It was like a long form of Vine’s six-second comedy skits (if you can call 15 to 30 seconds “long form”). 

My For You Page at the time was filled with relatable videos set to snippets of songs and video game audio. There were references to popular media that, at times, surprised me with their niche-ness. And the content never seemed to end. The app’s infinite scroll kept me enthralled for hours at a time, often at the expense of my school work and sleep. 

I kept my presence on the app a relative secret to those around me. I’d even join them as they spewed their discontent for the app and those on it knowing I’d spend every evening under my blankets, scrolling endlessly. 

There’s no real explanation as to why there was so much shame in being on TikTok in its early days. It could possibly be blamed on Gen Z’s aversion to anything “cringe” or unfamiliar, or the exhaustion of having to keep up with another social media app. All that is funny in retrospect given that 60% of the app users are of Generation Z, born between 1997 to 2012.

Tell us:Parents, do you limit access to social media and technology or let it fly? Let us hear from you.

The early days of TikTok felt like........

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