TikTok there goes the clock

Rumors spread about the possible ban of U.S.’s fastest-growing social media app

TikTok+there+goes+the+clock

Joy Robinson, Reporter

More than 100 million US citizens might be missing one of their favorite apps next time they go to look at their phone. President Donald Trump has threatened to shut TikTok down if it is not bought by an American company.

Senior Ariel Gentry loves TikTok; she has 2000 followers and 147.7k total likes. 

I use TikTok 24/7, way way too much,” Gentry said. “I’m gonna cry if it gets banned because it’s literally my favorite app.”

TikTok was originally named musical.ly, it changed its name in August 2018 in hopes of getting more people to come to the app.

Junior Mya Coddington got a little bit of TikTok fame back when TikTok was still musical.ly.

“I’ve had [TikTok] for about 4-5 years now,” Coddington said. “My most popular video was a video I made like 3 years ago when it was still ‘Musical.ly’ and it’s of me lip syncing a song.”

Trump says TikTok is a national security threat because of its owner, Beijing-based ByteDance, according to Vulture. It was set to be banned on September 15, 2020 by President Trump, but it still hasn’t been banned.  TikTok insists it does not share U.S. information with the Chinese government. It was announced that Oracle  bought TikTok, however there are still a lot of unanswered questions in this business deal.

Sophomore Xavier Taylor says he would be affected if TikTok truly did get banned. He has 5250 followers and 150.4k total likes.

I think the TikTok ban is ridiculous and a lot of people would become bored,” Taylor said.

Some critics say TikTok can sometimes be a little bit toxic, anything can receive backlash for even the smallest thing. Even though TikTok has brought out the statement that racism, hate, harassment, and discrimination isn’t acceptable on this app it still happens in some of the popular trends.

The most toxic trend is where a guy or girl creates their dream boyfriend or girlfriend, because they all look the same and there’s never been any diversity on that trend and it can be very upsetting for a person of color because it feels as if we’re not someone’s type,” Gentry said. 

People of all ages have hopes of being “TikTok Famous”. There is dancing, lip syncing, cooking, and anything else people feel like recording. A lot of times people will do whatever they can to be famous.  

I made a TikTok account so I could make dance videos and hopefully become famous,” Taylor said. “My most liked video has 498.2k views and 97.4k likes and it’s about dating.”

People can get famous through anything truly.

 “It definitely goes by looks because literally every famous TikToker is gorgeous,” Gentry said. “People usually get famous from a dance video or a thirst trap. My most popular video was a video of sour patch kid popsicles and it had like 90k likes.”

Some people believe that everything has to be perfect before they even upload something on TikTok.

“It probably takes me around three tries before I upload a video,” Taylor said. 

“It usually takes me like one or two tries, it depends on the video,” Gentry said.

Even if TikTok does have negatives, some say it is a good outlet, even if it could be improved. 

“It makes me laugh whenever I’m feeling sad or bored,” Gentry said. 

TikTok still has not been banned from the app stores yet. Coddington feels that if it still does get banned it is going to be weird and very dumb.