Vote to ban TikTok: Long Island users say app is 'center of teenage culture'
Eighth graders in Joe La Torre’s lunchtime book club rushed into his Oceanside Middle School classroom on Wednesday outraged. “This is ridiculous!” they said about the potential ban on TikTok.
“The kids came in steaming mad about this,” said La Torre, an English teacher. “I have middle school students who at recess are going out to call the lobbying numbers right now. That level of engagement is rare. They’re mad. They’re really mad.”
Taking away TikTok is like removing “the center of teenage culture,” La Torre said, akin to MTV for teens in the 1980s. “It’s where they get their haircut styles. It’s where they get their new music. It’s where they find out what shows to watch.”
A potential U.S. government ban on TikTok is no surprise, said Chris Russo, CEO of Manhattan-based Russo Strategic Partners, which represents social media content creators. “This is something that’s been talked about for a long, long time,” he said.
U.S. legislators have sought to control the app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, citing foreign policy concerns with the collection of user data. On Wednesday the House passed a bill that would require TikTok to separate from the Chinese owner or be banned, and that bill will now move on to the Senate.
But actually being forced to go cold turkey may come as a shock to the system for creators, influencers and especially Gen Z, some of whom scroll the app for hours a day watching user-created short-form, entertaining videos.
Long Island TikTok users’ opinions on a possible ban vary. Opponents cite what they say are freedom of speech issues and advocate for a less drastic approach. Proponents say that a ban might be a welcome thing for other reasons, such as reducing the amount of time kids and others spend on social media on their cellphones.
Grace Mary Williams, 24, a TikTok creator from Huntington Station with 2.4 million followers, said she’s personally “not too worried” about how a ban would affect her. While TikTok remains the primary platform where she introduces followers to candy and toys and her own brand of slime, which she sells, she said if TikTok is banned, she’ll “roll with the punches.”
“It would be a shame if it’s gone. I love TikTok and I use it every single day. My business would be completely changed. But if it does get banned, we have other platforms,” she said. She’s been diversifying for the past year on Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat “to make sure all my eggs aren’t in one basket.”
Ban opponent Aleena Zeejah, 15, a sophomore at Oceanside High School, said she watches expressive videos on TikTok that let her see other people’s stress and struggles and make her feel she’s not alone in her feelings. “TikTok is very much an outlet for Gen Z people like me and for people in my school,” Zeejah said.
Classmate Meghan Jenkins, 15, argued that a ban would be censorship, affecting users’ First Amendment freedom of speech rights. “I don’t think the U.S. government should be able to tell TikTok users whether they can or can’t use the app based on their feelings about it,” she said. Her father, Dennis, 57, a lead instructor for National Grid, agreed. “I really think Meghan said it perfectly.”
Coincidentally, students from Uniondale and Oceanside high schools faced a TikTok ban scenario on a recent field trip to the White House Experience at The Roosevelt School of Long Island University in Brookville, where they sat in a replica of the Oval Office and discussed whether the United States should ban the app due to foreign policy concerns.
Uniondale senior Irene Iraheta, 18, said she’s sticking by what she argued that day: That the solution should be more laws regulating what data all social media apps — whether owned by a Chinese company or an American one — are permitted to collect and/or keep.
Iraheta’s mother, Miriam, 45, a medical assistant, falls on the other side of the fence, seeing a plus for a possible ban that has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with attention span. “Many kids don’t concentrate in school like they did before social media,” she said.
TikTok user Marissa Armstrong, 18, of Commack, a freshman education major at SUNY Cortland, agreed that a ban could have unintended positive repercussions for teenage students — and even for herself. “To be honest, I feel like if they do take it away, it would be better for me. I’d be off my phone and be a little more engaged.”
Eighth graders in Joe La Torre’s lunchtime book club rushed into his Oceanside Middle School classroom on Wednesday outraged. “This is ridiculous!” they said about the potential ban on TikTok.
“The kids came in steaming mad about this,” said La Torre, an English teacher. “I have middle school students who at recess are going out to call the lobbying numbers right now. That level of engagement is rare. They’re mad. They’re really mad.”
Taking away TikTok is like removing “the center of teenage culture,” La Torre said, akin to MTV for teens in the 1980s. “It’s where they get their haircut styles. It’s where they get their new music. It’s where they find out what shows to watch.”
A potential U.S. government ban on TikTok is no surprise, said Chris Russo, CEO of Manhattan-based Russo Strategic Partners, which represents social media content creators. “This is something that’s been talked about for a long, long time,” he said.
U.S. legislators have sought to control the app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, citing foreign policy concerns with the collection of user data. On Wednesday the House passed a bill that would require TikTok to separate from the Chinese owner or be banned, and that bill will now move on to the Senate.
But actually being forced to go cold turkey may come as a shock to the system for creators, influencers and especially Gen Z, some of whom scroll the app for hours a day watching user-created short-form, entertaining videos.
Long Island TikTok users’ opinions on a possible ban vary. Opponents cite what they say are freedom of speech issues and advocate for a less drastic approach. Proponents say that a ban might be a welcome thing for other reasons, such as reducing the amount of time kids and others spend on social media on their cellphones.
Grace Mary Williams, 24, a TikTok creator from Huntington Station with 2.4 million followers, said she’s personally “not too worried” about how a ban would affect her. While TikTok remains the primary platform where she introduces followers to candy and toys and her own brand of slime, which she sells, she said if TikTok is banned, she’ll “roll with the punches.”
“It would be a shame if it’s gone. I love TikTok and I use it every single day. My business would be completely changed. But if it does get banned, we have other platforms,” she said. She’s been diversifying for the past year on Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat “to make sure all my eggs aren’t in one basket.”
Ban opponent Aleena Zeejah, 15, a sophomore at Oceanside High School, said she watches expressive videos on TikTok that let her see other people’s stress and struggles and make her feel she’s not alone in her feelings. “TikTok is very much an outlet for Gen Z people like me and for people in my school,” Zeejah said.
Classmate Meghan Jenkins, 15, argued that a ban would be censorship, affecting users’ First Amendment freedom of speech rights. “I don’t think the U.S. government should be able to tell TikTok users whether they can or can’t use the app based on their feelings about it,” she said. Her father, Dennis, 57, a lead instructor for National Grid, agreed. “I really think Meghan said it perfectly.”
Coincidentally, students from Uniondale and Oceanside high schools faced a TikTok ban scenario on a recent field trip to the White House Experience at The Roosevelt School of Long Island University in Brookville, where they sat in a replica of the Oval Office and discussed whether the United States should ban the app due to foreign policy concerns.
Uniondale senior Irene Iraheta, 18, said she’s sticking by what she argued that day: That the solution should be more laws regulating what data all social media apps — whether owned by a Chinese company or an American one — are permitted to collect and/or keep.
Iraheta’s mother, Miriam, 45, a medical assistant, falls on the other side of the fence, seeing a plus for a possible ban that has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with attention span. “Many kids don’t concentrate in school like they did before social media,” she said.
TikTok user Marissa Armstrong, 18, of Commack, a freshman education major at SUNY Cortland, agreed that a ban could have unintended positive repercussions for teenage students — and even for herself. “To be honest, I feel like if they do take it away, it would be better for me. I’d be off my phone and be a little more engaged.”
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
