Life Updates, Goal Setting, TikTok Ban

As I finish this up, the snow falls with the flurry of a Michigan winter. Its the kind of snow that makes perfect snowballs and when you step in it gives the satisfaction of a good walking crunch. Its the closest I’ll get to space travel when I drive fast enough through it and a reminder of the magic of changing seasons. My sister’s dog loves it too, eating it almost as fast as he runs through it.

I think a lot about writing a lot and I actually did some of it lately. I’m halfway through my reflections of the year but I think it makes sense to put out something before I finish those. I’m constantly torn between what to write, job hunting, thinking about writing, and then whatever tasks I’ve made for myself in the day. More action and less overthinking brings us here.

Looking ahead, I wrote out my goals for 2025 in November. I tend to do that when I get focused on goal setting and December is my runway month to see how measurable they are. I also started 30 day habit sprints in November. Between the two, I hope I can get some positive habits to carry forward throughout the year.

While I haven’t set this month’s sprint yet, the idea is you set 3 goals and then work on those until the next month. Once the new month starts, you add a goal, then rinse and repeat. My therapist suggested a vision board awhile back but an internet search gives endless article suggestions that aren’t helpful. I was off social media at the time, but I redownloaded TikTok for resume ideas and it’s been a great tool ever since. I love that I can search up concepts for something and get a quick video outlining someone’s ideas. I spend a lot of my days alone so it helps to bounce ideas off the creative ether in the world.

I love TikTok. It’s very helpful as a visual learner and accessibility is an important focus as most videos have easy to read cations. Hyper-scrubbing or changing settings like playback speed is also easy. It’s unlikely I’ll play with making videos on there (not my thing), but there are a ton of neat features if I opt in to BookTok.

Unfortunately, all my favorite social media platforms end up in trouble. Pour one out for Twitter - even the alternative BlueSky has AI concerns. I’m curious how the forced sale by Congress will impact the longevity of the platform and its current users' relationship with it moving forward.

Overall, the situation is about optics and politics. Let’s start with the amount of Pro-Palestinian content on the app had Congress concerned. Much of that content is activists reposting clips, discussing the dire humanitarian crises, and criticizing the inhumanity shown by Israeli forces. At the same time, Palestinians in Gaza post about the resources they need to survive and even possibly leave the area.

Another angle is the “security concerns” that emphasizes the danger of Chinese government ownership. With reports confirming 60% of its parent company ByteDance Ltd. is owned by global investors, it’s unclear this isn’t jealously by US companies masked in xenophobia. The company even named their U.S. specific data hosting project, “Project Texas”, a representation of its independence and massive size I’m sure. Maybe the Chinese government owns more than the small 1% of what they claim but let’s look at the data a moment.

With 170 million users in the U.S., that’s over half the total U.S. population who’s dialed in to the app. There’s so much opportunity to capture data, whether that’s spending in TikTok’s internal shop with affiliate links or promos, the genre of videos a demographic opts into, or the rate at which people watch. Ads are the least intrusive on this platform too. Even if promotions make up for this annoyance, it’s not nearly as annoying.

As appeals and testimony stall the upcoming ban, we’ll see what the result of this becomes closer to January 19, 2025. The timing of getting banned before the inauguration is ironic, but enjoy the graphics of Vox or extensive Polifacts coverage discussing Trump’s last one.

In the end, any tech company offering frees services is doing so in exchange for the benefits of your data, TikTok included. Nevertheless, Meta, Apple, and Google can continue to profit uninterrupted in this aspect since they are U.S. owned. Someday, these tech companies should be forced to pay restitution to its users yearly for such practices. Until then, be careful with what you post and managing your digital fingerprint.

Random thought of the week: I was talking to my sister about how Drake’s album Take Care wouldn’t exist without the Weeknd giving up his music. While the debate goes back and forth about how much who contributed what, it’s clear the collaboration was essential.

Music that inspired the post: Where the Butterflies Go in the Rain by Raveena.