To Ban or Not To Ban TikTok - THAT is the question

Look, everyone has addictions. So why is social media any different. Can you really be addicted to what others have to say on the daily? Yes, yes you can. I’m not an expert on addiction but I’m an expert at knowing my own issues. Even if I’m in denial about them, I still know they exist. Addiction is rough for a lot of people so I’m trying to traverse this conversation delicately. I don’t want to make light of substance addiction. That being said, some people really do become so engulfed in social media that it controls their life or at least keeps them focused on needing to know “what’s going on” at all times.

This week when TikTok was banned and then quickly revived less than 24 hours later, it really left people scrambling for what to do. It was especially difficult for those that have actually earned a decent income from it. For some, it is where they made connections with other like-minded people that they couldn’t find locally. So when the app eventually became active again, people were met with a pop-up that was worded like we should all thank the almighty incoming president for “rescuing” it. Most people saw that as a big sign of things to come, welcome the extreme propaganda era.

And speaking of propaganda, all of this was going on while Instagram was settling in with a new way of running things. They decided to get rid of their fact-checking team. Although Meta owns both Facebook and Instagram, for a long time they ran separately from each other as far as “vibes” go, but not having an actual fact-checking team will give them the same untrustworthy vibes. And considering Zuckerberg is besties with all the rest of the oligarchs, OF COURSE Insta will become a propaganda machine.

Then there’s RedNote or as it is written in simple Mandarin, "Xiaohongshu” and that has been an eye-opening experience. So many Chinese people are shocked to hear things from “Americans” that we have very little vacation from jobs, nearly non-existent maternity/paternity care, and of course our cost of healthcare is simply unacceptable to them. While Americans, on the other hand, are shocked to learn their Chinese brothers and sisters are not as controlled as we’ve all been told. There are plenty of people living the life they want. There are even queer people creating that will tell you it’s not as bad as we’ve been made to believe.

What does any of this have to do with creative reuse? For starters, how we communicate within these strange social media parameters, is VERY important. How do we reach the people that want to support us? How do we tell you there’s new stuff on our website shop? How will we tell people how to attend our Dirty Art Birgade workshops?. Which app should we use to reach the most people? Can you get paid by one app more than the other? The list of questions is endless.