Thanks Speaker Emeritus Pelosi for the essay title – even though we don’t agree on the outcome!!
Rant
Let me get this off of my chest. I am tired, so very tired, of hearing the Chinese Government referred to as “THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY”. Listen, I’m not stupid. I know the Conservative Party runs the United Kingdom, Likud controls Israel, the Vietnamese Communist Party runs Vietnam and, yes, the Communist Party runs China. Oh, by the way, do we say the American Democratic Party instead of the United States? What, we don’t?
I know the Communist Party runs China. I can even give a summary of how Mao Zedong and the Communists defeated Chang Kai-shek and the Nationalists (now in power in Taiwan). When politicians (of both political parties) and the media use “THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY” label instead of just China, or the Chinese government, it’s a “Red Scare” tactic still stale from the 1950’s. McCarthyism made us so afraid of “Red”, that the Cincinnati Reds changed their name to “Red-legs”, and maps that used to signify the British Empire in red switched that color to the Soviet Union and China. It’s a fear tactic from our sorry past, along with “America First” with all of its isolationist flaws.
So Tik-Tok came from China. So did my MacBook Pro and my I-Phone. The fact the Communist Party controls China doesn’t need to be shoved up my – nose – every time we talk about it. There; rant’s over.
Tik Tok
Now let’s get to the “bane of adult existence”, Tik Tok. Full disclosure: I don’t do Tik Tok. I do have the “app” on my phone, and it does open, but I don’t use it. And, I have fallen “down the well” of Tik Tok videos on Facebook a few times, losing several minutes of my life. I understand the “addictive” features, and I get how young people get “sucked in”. I also understand that it’s a powerful medium for communication, even if you don’t like what’s being communicated. So are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (Elon’s messed up ‘X’) and to a much lesser extent, all of the messaging and blogging apps.
Bad Rap
Tik Tok’s gotten a “bad rap” with us adults. All we think of is kids eating Tide pods, or trashing school restrooms, or mimicking some other video they see. And that all really happened. But it seems to me that Tik Tok is just very successful at what many of the other apps are trying to do. And more importantly, we are conceding that parents and other adults can’t control their own kids.
It’s just the old adage writ large: “If Jimmy next door jumps off of the Empire State Building, you’ll jump off the Empire State Building”. “If you see kids eating Tide pods on Tik Tok, will you eat Tide pods on Tik Tok?” We can’t change Jimmy, all we can do is make our kids stronger. Banning Jimmy just makes it easier for Bobby down the street.
It’s that “bad rap” that’s put the target on Tik Tok. But Tik Tok is also a valuable communication tool, one that many “older/young adults” use to get information. President Biden has a Tik Tok feed, as does that other guy. In spite of that, the US Congress is cavalierly jumping on their right to give and get information. That’s a huge First Amendment issue. Even more importantly, take out Tik Tok, and some other form will just take its place.
When I hear the “old, white, men” of Congress complaining about Tik Tok, I’m reminding of all those “old, white, men” who complained about Elvis Presley’s hips, or the Beatles’ haircuts, or “Puff the Magic Dragon” (is it about marijuana?) It’s this generation’s Zombie Nazis video games: the older generations just don’t get it.
Information Mining
But what about the – BREATHLESS – CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY!!!!! We are giving our information, our metadata, our location data, our innermost thoughts and dreams to the CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY!!! And our KIDS are giving it to them too! China (tired of capital letters) will use that against our population, or worse, they’ll manipulate how Americans think – through Tik Tok!! We all saw the movie, The Manchurian Candidate (at least the old one – Sinatra, not Denzel). Wasn’t that the Chinese (Communist Party)??
So here’s the bad news. The Chinese Government can buy that same information from dozens of sources, legally. Sure I don’t want Tik Tok to give them data. I don’t want Zuckerberg’s Facebook to do it either. And I sure don’t want Elon Musk to have my ‘X’ data. But by signing onto the app, I’m giving them all exactly that. The “algorithm” is simple. I don’t pay for Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Twitter, or the Tik Tok I don’t use. Chinese Communism to the contrary, it’s a capitalistic marketplace, and nothing is free. Why would Facebook let me post, and not charge me? They’re collecting my data, and selling it off. That’s where the “money” is.
Parenting
Congress: Don’t ban Tik Tok. It’s a drop in the bucket (or, maybe a little bigger, more like an ongoing drip). If you want to make a difference in information in the digital age; regulate data sweeping and mining, and those cookies in programs, so when I check out track starting pistols on Google, I don’t get ads for every form of semi-automatic military-style rifles. Ask Ro Khanna, the Congressman from Silicon Valley. He’s ready to do that “hard work” of really controlling personal information.
Parents: if you don’t want your kid on Tik Tok: take control of your kid, their phone, and their life. It’s the hard thing to do, like keeping your kid off drugs and alcohol. And just like those, your kid will likely make mistakes. Then love them, and teach them, and learn to trust them when you can. It’s called parenting, and letting them grow up.
We don’t need Congress to “parent” for us – do we??
