The popular app of distraction and deception, TikTok, is banned from government-issued devices in the US, Canada, and the UK. This was done due to cybersecurity concerns, and soon enough TikTok could be banned across average corporate devices. The thought of government or even business information being leaked through TikTok, or various other social media apps, is a scary thought. 

Scrolling through a continuous page of videos during work is not uncommon, there is no doubt workers took advantage of being able to use the app on devices given to them for their job. TikTok is an escape from reality, a break from whatever life a daily user may live, yet ignoring things like work with the use of the app creates laziness and overall less drive to do anything.

This ban creates hope of a perma-ban countrywide. Whether it’s only on corporate devices, or on every device in general, many agree with the ban. A study, conducted by Pew Research Center back in March of this year, concludes that more than two to one Americans agree with the issued ban on TikTok. 

But why?

To think of the people that make up the government of numerous countries doing the same exact thing as many workers, downloading and actively using TikTok with potentially important data on the same device, is worrying. Let’s be honest, the insecurity of TikTok is severe. The major concern is how China’s government could leech into devices through TikTok, seeing as they took control of the app entirely.

Fear of the Chinese government isn’t the only reason TikTok deserves to be banned. The effect on a user, just from scrolling through the nonstop misinformation and opinions being stated as facts, could cause their mental state to rapidly decline. The smallest rush of dopamine from something funny, compared to the mass amount of cancel culture videos is insane. 

The use of such a mind-numbing app like TikTok surely doesn’t belong in the workplace, and quite frankly it doesn’t belong anywhere. The hours spent scrolling go by so quickly, that once you check the clock you’re unsure how time went by so fast. Making the app an issue for mindless employees. You could be working from home, but if you’re trapped in TikTok for hours on end, what work are you really doing? 

You should just get rid of TikTok in general

There is no learning from social media, other than to learn it’s not truly helping. The same could be said about movies and shows, but they’re longer and, most of the time, scripted media, isn’t screaming at you to think a certain way. 

And with no real moderation on TikTok, so many things could pass by and end up gaining traction very quickly. I’m sure the majority of people have seen at least one messed-up video while scrolling through the app. And just to name one that got really big, the ‘Twitter link’ phase. 

I honestly wish I could go back to before I saw all of those videos. Or to a time I didn’t even know what TikTok was. We’ve all seen the horror that came out of the pandemic, people on TikTok spreading misinformation like there was no tomorrow. Then even after everything, it continued and will continue to do just that. 

So as a former mindless, non-stop media consumer, it’s for the best to remove the wretched app that is TikTok. Especially if you’re working, then you’re not supposed to be on it in the first place.