TikTok's slow attrition

Being locked out of the App Store and Play Store, on the other hand, is a slow squeeze. The first thing that comes to mind, obviously, is no new users. No growth.

I was never particularly tempted to use TikTok. Something about the nature of videos rushing by just isn’t appealing to me. I setup an account and tried it for a few minutes, but never dove deep into the multi-hour sessions that so many have fallen into.

This isn’t to heap praise upon myself. I lost a year of my life to Runescape. Other social networks (and Reddit and Hacker News) have spent too much time in my life pulling me in. I’ve gained some value from them, but also wasted far more. Reddit in particular has been the hardest habit to break.

I avoided the siren call of TikTok and am thankful for it.

Reading this piece by Gruber reminds me of Flappy Bird. The developer somewhat famously pulled the app because he didn’t like the addictive nature of the app and how much time it was wasting in people’s lives. Oh what a simpler time. Imagine if more founders had that mentality.

There was a time when a phone with Flappy Bird was a special thing, keeping it around a sort of badge of honor.

If the detente continues, and TikTok exists in a state of neither being or not being (a result I see as highly improbable) I’m partially amused by this idea of phones existing with versions of TikTok, a museum of sorts, locked to a state in the past, their owners afraid to change anything for fear of losing the last drips of content.

In the last few months I’ve pulled away from social media. I’m so incredibly thankful, and I’m not sure if I’ll go back. In its place I’ve still wasted time, but also found time, and done some things I’m really happy with (this blog chief among them).

It wouldn’t be such a bad thing if more social media platforms ended the same way.

Via Daring Fireball.