Life Without TikTok: Gen Z in a TikTok-less World
As a ban looms, we explore the critical thought exercise: what would a TikTok ban mean for Gen Z, and for the brands trying to reach them?
TikTok faces a ban in the US - this is certainly not new news. Will it happen? Who knows - legalities and logistics pose a big challenge.
But there is one, really important question that we can - and we should - think about right now.
What would happen to Gen Z - and to all of us - in a life without TikTok?
Consider this a thought exercise - to understand just how much this one platform has shaped the lives of Gen Z, and how its absence would change marketing, advertising, and culture.
Part One: What would Gen Z do if TikTok got banned?
A few days back, we asked our Loop panel of Gen Z’ers this same question. Take a look at some of the responses we got back…take a good look.
There are a couple of these that we want to call out to understand the types of relationships young people have with TikTok.
“I would not be able to continue to live because TikTok is my top source of entertainment
“I would kill myself”
“Vanish to thin air”
“kms”
There were 5 direct mentions of suicidal thoughts, with many more depressive thoughts expressed.
The most popular responses were “nothing” and “cry”, both at 14% of the submissions.
Instagram and YouTube were the most commonly cited places to go in a TikTok-less world, with a total of 19% of the submissions - 12% for Instagram and 7% for YouTube.
These responses should be concerning - but they should also inspire some optimism. There is a clear recognition by many of the troubling role the platform plays in our lives, and while some expressed that more …positively… such as: “Probably live a better life without being addicted to TikTok”, the overwhelming sentiments of sadness, hopelessness, and depression do lead to the idea that young people may take a step back and take a good hard look in the mirror about their relationship to technology.
Here is a look at the resulting word cloud:
For access to the full set of 149 responses, please send us an email by here genz@dcdx.co
On April 18th at 3pm ET, we’ll be having a live conversation on this topic with Gen Z. We are inviting 6 Gen Z’ers to our panel to talk through what they would feel, do, and change about their lives in a world without TikTok.
This talk is part of a two-part live series, and you can register by clicking the event link below:
Part Two: What happens to brands in a TikTok-less world?
The second reason I think this thought exercise is so powerful is that it makes us evaluate and understand how a TikTok ban would change marketing - and culture - as we know it.
This is a platform that has fundamentally - and forever - changed marketing, advertising, and consumer behavior.
For a handful of years now, TikTok has been at the heart of culture. Some would argue TikTok has been the heartbeat of culture itself. So what happens to marketing, to advertising, and to the importance of cultural relevancy and cultural randomness, when you remove the heart?
H1: The Replacement Hypothesis
This hypothesis suggests that young audiences will seek - and find - that content elsewhere. This would be the simplest and easiest outcome to deal with for brands - and while it would still require a heavy readjustment of time, energy, and spend, it would be the least likely to upend the threads of internet culture.
It leads to the rise of Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts as the beneficiaries, and likely to the dominance of one of those platforms as the winner in this attention-take-all economy.
But there is a reason we do not think H1 is likely.
Instagram and YouTube have always played specific roles in the lives of young audiences. Instagram’s identity crisis in 2022 (which we detailed out in that article) has seemingly led to the platform’s more focused attempt to return to the “old days” of Instagram when it was about interacting and keeping up with your friends.
Because of Instagram’s role as LinkedIn for our personal lives, the idea that it would try to replace (again) the hole from TikTok seems unlikely. This is a much, much bigger conversation, but that is the initial counter; the role of TikTok is about entertainment, and that is not the role Instagram has - or likely can - play for Gen Z, if they want to keep their original purpose (which Gen Z certainly wants them to keep).
YouTube, we’d argue - is the more likely of the two. But we’ll save that for a later convo…more to come on that.
H2: The Emergence Hypothesis
This hypothesis suggests that existing socials will not be able to claim this attention, but a new social platform will quickly rise as “ the new TikTok”.
Surely the venture capital world would quickly back a startup positioned well and with good initial traction to come and eat up the empty space. This would take time - and lots and lots of money - but in the event that Instagram or YouTube are not clear winners, the space will be there, and someone will try and eat it up.
This also seems unlikely. What we believe most people misunderstand about TikTok is that it is so much more than a platform. TikTok truly is a brand - it stands for something in the lives of young people and has a true and powerful emotional connection with so many young people.
It is why the responses to the question are so shrouded in darkness and powerful language. This platform has - and does - mean something truly special to young people. It helped so many through the loneliness and isolation of COVID and continues to bring communities together online through content, comments, and creators. But the emotional attachment, more than anything, is not to any of these things. It is to the algorithm.
This is - and always has been - the protected secret sauce.
Without the for you page (FYP), we momentarily lose our sense of self.
H3: The Evolution Hypothesis
H1 and H2 are built on the assumption that audience behaviors will remain the same. They are built on the idea that there is a longing and a need for short-form and video-driven entertainment content in the lives of young audiences.
But what happens if this assumption is wrong? What if this longing is not for the content, communities, creators, or algorithm of TikTok - but for something else?
Over the last few months, we have slowly but surely seen a signal emerging in various pockets of culture. We analyzed #corecore, kept close eyes on the Luddite Club, have seen more and more young folks taking active actions to limit and keep conscious control over their screen time use, and many, many more of these small but meaningful actions.
H3 is built on the idea that just as COVID was the catalyst for so many of the behaviors we acknowledge today as normal, a TikTok ban would be the catalyst for a move away from the harmful relationship we have with social media and the internet.
It would force a dialogue - externally, yes - but most importantly with ourselves.
A dialogue that would question our digital consumption habits, and would result in an attempt to find alternatives for the belonging, connection, and identity exploration that we have for so long relied on social media to provide.
And with that, the role of brands would suddenly become more clear - and vital - than ever before.
On April 25th at 3pm ET, we’ll be exploring this in part two of our series on Life Without TikTok. We will be inviting a panel of 4 experts to talk through how a TikTok ban would change the way they reach young audiences, and how it would shape the speed of culture itself.
To register for this series of events, sign up here.