R: Tick-tock, TikTok

To some, TikTok and similar forms of social media are poison spewing forth from a rotting civilization. To others, they are harmless forms of entertainment and occasional distraction. This week, we will consider whether the shortcomings of social media merit immediate action. The debate is prescriptive, not descriptive, in nature. We are discussing not whether social media is in decline, but whether we should take steps to guarantee its demise. 

Many of us bemoan the tyranny of technology in our own lives, and insist that we would be better off without the ever-present temptation of comforting but useless distraction. A society without social media would be more productive, more energetic, and better able to recognize and appreciate true beauty. Social media, especially those forms which, like TikTok, are designed primarily to divert and entertain, pose such a danger to society that significant action is justified to constrain them. Of course, we must temper our own tastes as well, but society cannot be rightly ordered while such technology is widely used. Those in the affirmative should consider how we might best discourage the use of social media—through legislative action, social stigmatization, or some other means.

Those in the negative need not consider social media a positive good. Rather, I anticipate many will argue that despite its negative effects, heavy-handed efforts to curtail social media use are not worth the risks they carry. There is no limiting principle that would allow reasonable anti-social media policies without unduly infringing on free speech or other rights. Furthermore, perhaps TikTok is simply a vehicle for distributing the popular art of the new decade, like radio and television before it. Perhaps memes and viral dances are to this century what jazz music and TV shows were to theirs. Many now-accepted forms of entertainment were scorned in their own time, and TikTok provides an outlet for genuine creativity as well as self-aggrandizing nonsense. Social media has very few redeeming qualities, to be sure, and it can be harmful in excess, but is it not uniquely rewarding to temper our own tastes—to do what is salutary by choice and not by compulsion? As Chesterton said, “I will ask God, but certainly not man, to prevent me in all my doings.”

What forces should prevent us from entertaining ourselves to death? Is overreliance on social media a legislative issue, a cultural issue, or merely a personal issue? Should we be willing to accept the consequences of social media on society, for better and for worse? Or should we start running out the clock on TikTok?