As I write this, there are less than 24 hours before Donald Trump returns to the Oval Office and already the American people are starting to experience the familiar roller coaster ride known as President Trump.
Saturday night, TikTok turned off the lights, so to speak, leaving 170 million-plus Americans in the dark as they logged onto TikTok only to be met with messaging that said TikTok was offline due to the upcoming ban, but hoped to return soon and that the TikTok folks were working with President Trump on a solution to bring it back.
Fast-forward 14 hours later and, well, TikTok has returned. After Trump himself announced on his Truth Social platform that he was asking companies to not let TikTok stay dark and that he would like to see the United States have a 50% ownership of TikTok in a joint venture.
I am not privy to the details, but I do know that TikTok is back and, well, if the U.S. does get a 50% stake in TikTok, can we say state-sponsored media? I mean, Twitter/X is already owned by a man who is going to be helping the Trump administration slash costs. Friends, if this plan comes to fruition, that’s not a good thing but that is a piece for another day.
What I do want to talk about though is how in a 24-hour period, emotions were high as millions of TikTok users and content creators lamented the possible loss of income and communities. Even my own daughter was anxious about the possibility of TikTok going dark for good—to which I told her that odds were low of that happening.
Right now, millions of people who depend on TikTok for a myriad of reasons are feeling a sense of relief that TikTok has been restored, and that has heavy implications for our collective future. Frankly, I think Trump and company played the American people, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ban on TikTok but outgoing President Biden said he wasn’t going to do anything to turn it off since Trump has been clear that he would be working on a way to keep the site operational.
Friends, these people were playing with American emotions and putting folks on an unnecessary emotional roller coaster. The thing is, if we have learned anything from the first Trump term, he thrives on chaos and keeping us tethered to his chaos machine. If we are going to resist the worst parts of what this administration is planning, we must get grounded.
Whenever I mention getting grounded on social media platforms, I am often met with resistance and reasons why that is not possible. The thing is that in organizing and movement work, you cannot be effective in your work and efforts if you are operating from being in a 24/7 state of high anxiety. Planning requires intention and focus, things that are often hard to achieve long term when you are distracted and anxious. Hell, even outside of organizing work, hard work cannot be sustained when you are anxious and tired for an extended period. It’s generally in those moments when you start to crash. The irony being that white supremacy culture tells us that working super-hard and being tired and anxious is the norm, and it is why so many of us struggle when we are not productive and running on the hamster wheel. Much like exercising and going hard, though, the real change takes hold on the days we allow ourselves to rest between sessions. Exercising days on end without a break might feel good, but rarely is it good. The same applies to our work.
Living in a world where social media dominates our lives, anxiety is baked in and that is by design. For all that social media gives us, it is also known that it strips away our attention and frankly makes us emotional. It rewires us in ways that are not commonly discussed by the end users but is widely known by those who created the technologies that we see as critical to modern day life.
Steve Jobs changed our lives with the iPhone and iPad, but it was well known that he did not let his own kids use iPads because he felt they were addictive and harmful. Bill Gates and his now former wife also restricted their own kids’ access to technology. In fact, in recent years as I have started reading more about how technology and social media harm us, the recurring theme is how many of the people who designed this modern-day world we can’t live without often limited its use in their own families. That should give us all pause.
So, if you want to get grounded back into the present as you figure out how to navigate the very real threat of authoritarianism and fascism, start simple. Limit your use of social media and go outside.
For too many of us, staying informed about what is happening has led to unhealthy behaviors that keep us in a state of anxiety. The quickest way I have found to break a social media consumption-fueled anxiety moment is to go outside and take a few minutes to breathe fresh air and just be silent. No matter where I am.
Yes, I live on a barrier island off the coast of Maine, which means fresh ocean smells, birds, and relative silence. However, a few days ago, I was in Boston for work meetings for a few days and when I felt myself tensing up, I took a few minutes to go outside. Even an urban walk with no phone in my hand and looking at people and listening to the various sounds can bring me back to the present moment.
Much of what keeps us emotionally dysregulated in the political realm is not just the current moment but with Trump around, worrying about what’s next. The thing is we live in the present moment and chronically staying in the future moment can prevent us from being active and present in the now. Honestly, our lives are societally wired to live in the future; its why we look forward to the weekend or vacations or anything in the future. But here is the thing: The future isn’t promised. I mean that in multiple ways. In theory, just because you woke up today doesn’t mean you are going to sleep tonight. Nothing is promised. Every day someone woke up only to have it be their last day in this realm. Sorry to be grim, but we are all adults here and no doubt, we all know of someone whose life was cut unexpectedly short. Car accidents, heart attacks, stroke, etc. They happen.
There’s also the fact that when we live in the future, it keeps us from enjoying the present. The future may be bleak as hell, but if in this moment there is something to enjoy, why not enjoy it? As I write this, there is an impending snowstorm for my area along with a deep freeze headed my way. But right now? It is clear blue skies with a temperature of 40—a beautiful day for mid-January in Maine. Crashing out over the projected bad weather would prevent me from enjoying the nice weather that is here now.
The other thing is that overall, when we get anxious about everything, it means we can’t focus. For all the attention given to TikTok in the last 72 hours, what isn’t getting nearly enough of our attention is that it has been reported that Trump is planning ICE raids in major democratic cities starting this week.
TikTok is important and there are a lot of issues and concerns wrapped up in it, but a lot of people are about to have their lives turned upside down and be treated cruelly. We are going to need to prioritize where we put our energy. Getting grounded gives us the spaciousness to figure out what we can do.
The powers to be want us scattered and unable to mobilize. With the number of tech bro oligarchs coming on board, they know this. The question is do you know this? How do you plan to organize and resist when you are so anxious you can barely sleep and focus?
No one is saying you must unplug for good. In fact, that is a bad idea; we do need to stay in the know. But do you need to start and end your days doomscrolling? Can you create spaciousness by going outside every day—and no, I am not saying you need an hourlong hike every day—but can you spend five to 10 unstructured minutes outside without a phone or device? Can you shift your daily rounds to just being present in three- to five-minute increments? Can you make time with people you dig on a regular basis? Can you find something enjoyable to do daily that isn’t a heavy lift but forces you to be in the present moment? Something that gets the heaviness of the world and the fear off your plate that allows you to reset and feel a calming down.
Our work is knowledge and action along with caring for others and self. It feels counterproductive when so much is going on, but my experience has been that by creating space daily to be present, it allows me to not get caught up in the emotionality of everything. To see clearly what is bullshit and what are real threats that require my attention.
It has been clear to me for several days that TikTok wasn’t going anywhere in the immediate future. It had been widely reported that TikTok’s CEO is attending Trump’s inauguration. Based on the CEO’s own words and videos on Tik Tok that have a strange MAGA undertone, they are entertaining Trump and Trump is the man of the moment. I am more concerned about the millions who were left riding a wave of emotionality because Trump is playing politics and trying to create more loyal followers who will appreciate his bringing back TikTok. I am also concerned about the billionaire oligarchs who own these platforms of addiction who are disconnected from their own humanity and are choosing to harm the rest of us.
There’s a lot we can’t do to fight back but there is a lot that we can do, and taking back our well-being in the storms is a starting place to building and fighting back.
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