Deleting TikTok: Is it For You ??

After my five minute study break turned into two hours on TikTok, I decided to put an end to the bottomless pit of distraction that TikTok can be. I’ve been off the app for almost a week now, and although it was almost as challenging as my political science midterm, I’ve found that I’ve already grown in many different ways. My screen time went down, my attention span went up, and I’ve been able to get my homework done so much faster.

The first day TikTok wasn’t on my phone anymore, I found myself scrolling through my home screen trying to click on the app, even though there was only a blank space from where it used to be. The searching continued for a couple of days until I was finally able to remember that the app was really gone. My screen time average normally sat around three and a half hours, but without TikTok to waste hours of my time, my new daily average cut down to just a little over an hour and a half. The limit on TikTok also made me more mindful about all my social media use. Although my screen time wasn’t extremely high in the first place, there was still had a pretty significant decrease without our favorite time-wasting app.

Because I had been spending so much time on TikTok the past couple of years, my attention span had gotten pretty short. Now, since I don’t have a continuous stream of short videos to watch, I’ve started watching lengthier YouTube videos and Netflix series again. It can still be a little challenging to sit through a 45 min video without checking my phone in the middle of it, but it’s getting easier and definitely feels like my mind is getting stronger.

I worried that I’d be out of the loop on all the jokes and trends that form on TikTok, but fortunately looking over my friends’ shoulders while they’re scrolling has been just enough content for me. Also, a little secret for those who made the big step of deleting TikTok: Instagram’s “reels” that, while not quite as entertaining, can satisfy your craving for a funny video.

I’ve loved the feeling of being free from the never-ending grasp of TikTok, and now I’m encouraging all of my friends to join me. Not having TikTok has given me way more motivation to hang out with my besties and actually talk to them, not just mindlessly scroll through our FYPs while sitting beside each other.

If you decide to go on a TikTok cleanse, feel free to tag us @theedgemag to show us all the cool stuff you’re doing with all your new free time!