I always felt like TikTok was meant to brainwash

I’ve never created a TikTok account, but my wife is absolutely obsessed with it (like many people, I’m sure). Something about the platform has always felt off to me. I can’t shake the feeling that some of the so-called “trends” and conspiracy theories might actually be influenced by the Chinese government to weaken our youth and economy.

For example, I often hear my wife—and seemingly most TikTok users—talking about things like “quiet quitting” and other ideas that promote disengagement from work. She also gets really discouraged watching videos that paint the U.S. as an awful place compared to virtually every other country. She’ll say things like, “People in other countries have it so much better! They get more time off, they make more money,” and I’m just sitting there thinking, What are you talking about?

Having traveled the world myself, I can say that there are a lot of unhappy people everywhere lol. People in other countries have the same complaints we do - if not worse/more complaints. Anyway, that’s just my two cents.