My Mission to Destroy TikTok

It’s infectious, it’s dangerous. People all over, of all ages, are spending copious amounts of time scrolling on social media, especially nowadays with short-form video content.

I get it, it’s addicting, and it feels good. TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts: they are all like a back scratcher, the sweet sensation they give that you never want to end.

The difference? A back scratcher takes considerable effort to continue using. These apps on the other hand take no further effort or really any effort at all to keep using. Minutes go by in seconds and for hours after scrolling your brain is still thinking about the opinion from CakeLibrarian2340 about your favorite politician.

Your attention is elsewhere even when you’re not on the scroll: you can’t sit still, and you can’t focus. At the same time, the culprit is calling you back, just for a few minutes of relaxation. The low energy, zero effort expended activity that feels so good, videos are tailored to keep you in the loop, and you sort of feel like you’re progressing, and learning at all times, but…

If you spend more time on TikTok than you do actually doing the work, doing things that are hard and worthwhile, doing things you’re genuinely curious about: you’re wasting away and leaving so much goodness to the curb.

You have an endless pool of potential that you haven’t swam in for weeks, months, maybe even years. I want to help you access it, I want to help thousands of people access it.

At the end of the day, you were built to create cool s**t and do cool s**t, not just scroll all day.

My Plans to Destroy TikTok

So far my main plans to carry out this mission fall into three ‘side quests’: the three main things I’m doing to “destroy TikTok”.

Honestly, although I’ve told you my mission is to destroy TikTok, this isn’t the entire truth. My real main mission is much less vindictive.

The real mission is to enable people to not just see their own potential, but help them realize it more than they currently are.

The real mission is to help people do more stuff, create more cool s**t, and follow their genuine curiosities at the same time.

Ok but how? Right, here’s my current breakdown: (all feedback and/or encouragement appreciated)

1. Write
   → Every day I write for one hour or 1000 words to help distill what I’ve been learning, inspire others to create cool s**t and stop scrolling, and/or provide real tips, tricks, genuine encouragement to people who need it most. This translates into Medium posts, Twitter posts, Blog posts, and writing in my book(s).

2. Build
   → Every day I spend at least 30 minutes (usually much more) workshopping, planning, and building my app Curiosity Quench. (The MVP is getting close to being ready. I’ve also been doing 1 on 1 calls for free to anyone who wants help breaking their scrolling addiction. You can book one here to help me help you, and others in the future.

3. Document
   → Every day I am attempting to build a movement by writing, and recording YouTube and ironically enough: TikTok videos, showing what I’ve been creating/working on. This includes writing about what I’m doing but also means I want to be a larger proponent of my own ideals. To showcase to others how you can go about creating things and scrolling less in a fun way, in a meaningful, worthwhile way. By documenting in a raw format I feel I can help others transpire to take high energy action instead of the low energy actions used to scroll frequently.

With these three side quests/actions, moved forward each and every single day, I feel like I genuinely have a very good chance at helping a great deal of people create cool s**t, do cool things, and live a better life for it all.

What will you create today, what will you do that’s more meaningful than scrolling?

As a parting question, I leave with you the above, as well as this quote:

“You are likely under-imagining what you can become capable of”
— Visakan Veerasamy

Thank you so much for reading my friend.

// My book is coming soon!! “You Were Built to Create Cool S**t” on December 12th, 2023!

Anyways, it’s been fun.
See you next time,
jack ♠️ :)