On January 18, 2025, at 11:00 pm EST, TikTok officially shut down for American users across the nation. It was a moment that no one ever expected. It was filled with disappointment and disbelief, leading to lost interests and jobs.
Since I deleted the app rather than simply quitting it, my own experience was worse than others. As a seventeen-year-old girl, it was the worst mistake I had ever made.
What was I thinking?
After I deleted the app, I texted all of my friends, and they called me insane for doing so. Although I regretted my decision, I genuinely believed the app would never be restored. But as you may know, the app has been back online and available in app stores for more than a month.
Everyone is in love with TikTok, including me, and it is especially adored by those who grew up with the app. I spent seven hours in front of the screen before the app was deleted. I am aware of my addiction, but it is worth flipping through the edits, making my own videos, and sharing them with my friends.
Just hours before the app was taken down, my friends and I were all venting and going hysterical about losing it, and we wondered what we would do next. Even though we couldn’t use TikTok for a whole day, there were still Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and other social media platforms.
But TikTok just feels different.
Anything you’re interested in will automatically appear on your For You Page, you can view your favorite content creators, and you can make videos and post them for fun. (Yes, you can also do all of this on Instagram, but that platform is more for posting pictures, not 15-second videos.)
The moment I saw the message, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now,” it felt unreal. For hours, I was bored without scrolling on TikTok, so I continuously went through Instagram, but it quickly got depressing. My head consciously told me to go and click on the app, but over and over, I had to tell myself it was gone for good. Still, it kept getting harder, and worse by the second.
The next day was Sunday at 1:00 pm and news spread like wildfire that Tik Tok was back online. I thought to myself, WHAT?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I DELETED THE APP?! What in the world do I do now?!
I was honestly confused, because if the app was back, shouldn’t it be available in the app stores? But I was wrong because it wasn’t available there for three weeks.
Now I’m doomed. I kept thinking to myself, What am I going to do now? Be on Instagram all day long? I don’t think so.
It truly broke my heart when TikTok was taken from me, because I have had that app since I was ten years old, but back then it was known as Musically. I had saved thousands of videos, had hundreds of video drafts of myself, and sent millions of edits to all my friends.
Sadly, because I deleted the app, all of my content is now gone. When I think back, I wish I just left the app, because if I did, everything I had would still be there. Instead, I have had to redo everything again.
The first day passed without me having a TikTok account and it felt like I was in a mental asylum. I thought I was going crazy, and I nearly cried because of how miserable I was without it.
Shockingly, without the app, I barely used my phone the next day, which shows how much of an obsession I have for TikTok, that I was bored being on my phone without it. Monday passed, and I started spamming my story, begging for help, trying to restore the app, knowing it was impossible.
On the second day, I was lucky enough that one of my friends knew how I could get TikTok back. About an hour later, step-by-step, she told me exactly what to do to make it happen.
First I had to change my location on my phone settings, so I chose Australia. Fortunately, this worked and I just had to reset my phone again.
After a couple of minutes, I revisited the app store and searched up TikTok. Have mercy, it appeared on my screen, and glory came upon my face. Seriously, you don’t understand how ecstatic I was at this moment. It felt like I had just won the Lottery.
Quickly, I clicked to download and finally open the app once again. I created a new account, followed all my friends, and started to find my interests as before.
Those two days without TikTok were a nightmare. Those people who also deleted the app know what I’m talking about, and the people who don’t know how I felt were lucky enough to keep the app on their phones.
It’s been over a month since this terror occurred to me, and I hope we will never experience anything like this again.
Like ever.
