What Would You Do Without TikTok? Vogue’s Staff Discusses

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This week—possibly even Wednesday—the House of Representatives is expected to vote on a bill that will require TikTok to divest from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, or else be forbidden in the United States. While the ban’s critics decry it as a First Amendment violation, supporters say the app poses a national security risk. 

TikTok has faced several legal barriers in recent years. Donald Trump crusaded to have the app banned during his presidency, and in 2022, President Biden prohibited the app from being used by federal employees on government-owned devices. Biden recently told reporters that, should Congress pass the ban, he will sign the legislation.

TikTok has run into other challenges this year, too: In February, Universal Music Group pulled their artists’ music from the app, citing concerns about artist compensation, the use of AI, and users’ “online safety.” 

But the threat of a mass ban has much further-reaching implications than a limited music library. Ahead of the vote, Vogue staffers began to consider what their lives would look like without TikTok. Below, they share how they’d replace all that scrolling time. 

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If I HAD to part with TikTok, I suppose I would spend my hours finding humor in the company of my friends. The opposite of doom-scrolling is fostering relationships, I guess. I could also start a class? I’m very into finding new ways of being insufferable so…maybe acting? —Maya Layne, entertainment associate

I will get around to making dinner rather than swiping through #ASMR cooking and fridge-organizing videos with the sound all the way up. —Taylor Antrim, deputy editor

If TikTok were taken away from me I would dedicate even more time to creating mood boards for homes I do not own. Perhaps with the extra time I could take up a lucrative side hustle and help make my countryside cottage dreams a reality! —Florence O’Conner, associate producer

If TikTok gets banned, I’ll finally stop scrolling and sit down to write the next great American novel. Also, will probably have to find a new career, seeing as I spend a great portion of the day running Vogue’s TikTok account. On second thought, that’ll just free up more time for the novel. —Lucy Dolan-Zalaznick, senior associate, creative development, social & visuals

Without TikTok I’ll be getting into the grindset by pouring my social media efforts into becoming a LinkedInfluencer. —Hannah Jackson, fashion writer

I love an internet rabbit hole, but weirdly I’ve never been that big into TikTok. Though the one thing I did get very invested in was the nine-month-cruise TikTok drama over the holidays. So maybe if they ban it I’ll, I dunno, book a holiday? —Liam Hess, living editor

Not to brag, but I deleted TikTok from my phone over a year ago, the hope being that my ravaged attention span would eventually grow back. While I’d love to say that I’ve used the time it freed up to, like, write a book or something, instead I’ve mostly spent it listening to other people’s books: Late in the Day and After the Funeral by Tessa Hadley and Bad News, the second installment in Edward St. Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose series, were some recent favorites. Also, unfortunately … occasionally watching Instagram Reels? They don’t quite have the gravitational pull of TikToks, so I’m good after three or four, but I did encounter one recently that stopped me in my tracks: a video that Joely Richardson had posted of her mother, the redoubtable Vanessa Redgrave, reading a sonnet from the “poetry diary” she’d received. So, Congress can do what it likes. —Marley Marius, features editor

I have an incredibly horrid habit of scrolling TikTok right before bed every night. My poor, poor brain. If the app gets banned, I am going to finally pick up the book that is collecting dust on my nightstand: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Now, I’ll have no excuse—prose over For You Pages! —Christian Allaire, senior fashion & style writer

I’ll be watching Living Single for the fifteenth time, adding things to my Net-A-Porter wish list, and FaceTiming with my niece and nephew. The ideal night, honestly. —Leah Faye Cooper, digital style director

I am hoping to spend this time getting through the pile of unread books on my nightstand. But also, probably watching old episodes of The Amazing Race. —José Criales-Unzueta, fashion news writer

You know what? I hope TikTok is banned. Then I will be finally free of those crazy tarot card readers that claim I secretly have a friend trying to hex me, my job is in peril, and that a tall mystery man from my past will finally confess their feelings. (Joke’s on them, all my exes are 5’10” and the only thing they make me feel is dead inside.) It’s like the modern-day equivalent of someone sending you one those deranged AOL chain letters that you had to forward to 10 friends if you didn’t want to die. Except you can’t just delete them! They just keep popping up like a cyber Whac-A-Mole when you really just want to watch a dog video! So, yeah, it’ll be nice to not have to deal with that. —Elise Taylor, living writer

I’ll have no job. —Taylor Anderson, associate social media manager