I went to title this essay “THE TikTok ban”. That felt desperate and like I was immaturely adding to the dramatics of this event. I erased it. I replaced it with OUR TikTok ban. Because ultimately that’s what I’m craving on the other side of all of this…unity.
Is Substack and my limited email subscriber list the best place to satisfy that craving? Not likely, but just like the evolving story of this TikTok ban; my voice and posture here on Substack continues to evolve as well.
For this ban, I anticipate the next week is going to feel bizarre for many. I feel there will be a public display of people processing this change. I imagine individuals involved with this app, (regardless of how great or little capacity) will go through some sort of an adjustment period or dare I say a grief cycle around the loss of the platform. Is this a temporary loss? Is this a political publicity stunt? Will TikTok be back with a new owner and the latest software update in a mere 72 hours? I do not know. The speculation has already begun to splatter the remaining “unbanned” social platforms.
I snapped this screenshot of my account just prior to the platform going DARK. I was exporting and saving videos from the app to my personal phone in the event this ban was in fact legit and suddenly… THE notice populates on my screen. (*dramatic gasp)
It was a strange feeling to have ownership of something and without warning; an hour later, have zero access. It’s also very interesting that my coping mechanism for coming to terms with this new reality was to escape to the platform that I personally feel provides me the most autonomy: Substack.
I am now writing and processing how this actually affects me and my adjuster community. I personally used the TikTok platform to share and educate about the insurance industry. My husband and I started our independent catastrophe business in 2018 and in 2020 I began sharing on the platform insights and advice on how to get into the career of insurance. In the beginning, we were speaking to an extremely niched audience of individuals mainly young males. But I quickly learned there were many people of all ages, gender and walks of life open to to traveling 4-6 months out of the year to major weather events if it meant they could make their annual salary in substantially less amount of days out of the year. I shared one video that totaled the amount of days we worked in 2022 was 101 days. I began resharing the hashtags #stormlife and #timeisthenewcurrency and a few videos went viral on multiple occasions. The concept of working really hard for a short duration out of the year really intrigued a lot of people. I was sharing and maintaining this account, “followourstorms” all while working at the ground zero of real catastrophes. We were assessing damages from perils such as wind, hail and hurricanes in our camper deployed with my four year old and two large dogs. Our day to day life on the storm turned out to be really great content. And now 4 years of dedicated time and energy on one app just vaporized.
I’ve temporarily moved our adjuster account over to a platform called Bluesky.
I don’t have a marketing strategy or a real plan on where to start or go from here.
Because tonight all I can think about it is:
When my son was evaluated for childhood apraxia of speech and I didn’t know what that meant or how I needed to educate myself as a parent to better support him; I went to TikTok.
When my sour dough wasn’t rising properly; I went to TikTok.
When my hospice nursing job gave me compassion fatigue I would disassociate after my shifts and want to scroll funny dog videos; I went to TikTok.
When I noticed my gums receding due to jaw clenching at night; I went to TikTok
When I wanted to learn more about agricultural loan requirements and tax exemptions for our new property; I went to TikTok.
When I’d have random insomnia spells and all I wanted to do was let a stranger whisper soft relaxing ASMR sounds with a surprise pen light eye exam; I went to TikTok.
When I found a nucleus colony of bees to order on craigslist to start my own apiary on my land but wasn’t sure if I could actually take care of them; I went to TikTok.
When I started having postural orthostatic tachycardia episodes and my primary care provider told me I just needed to decrease my stress; I went to TikTok.
When I had questions about the weather radar, the intensity of a hurricane or real spaghetti model predictions; I went to TikTok
When I unexpectedly got into binging facts and live streams about the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial; I went to TikTok.
When I questioned the news outlets; I went to TikTok.
When I questioned the recipe; I went to TikTok.
When I questioned the election; I went to TikTok.
Have you heard the Shakespeare quote, “A jack of all trades is a master of none.” I’ve never liked that quote. I identify as a multi-potentialite and that quote can be quite discouraging to a multi-girlie like myself. But I just read the rest of that quote. Did you know there was a second part? “A jack of all trades is a master of none, BUT oftentimes better than a master of one.” -William Shakespeare
I think tonight that’s where my grief starts for the TikTok ban. The loss of the ability to learn new things quickly and entirely UNSCRIPTED. I feel like a master of MINUS ONE tonight.
Before you go.
Is it okay if you take the deepest breath you’ve taken all day with me?
Breathe in ..2..3.
Breathe out gently…2…3.
Rebecka- Thanks for sharing your experience on the TikTok ban from a personal viewpoint. I think it’s admirable to have joined it to bring awareness that you can help people through insurance.