Another reason I stay away is because I don't understand what one is doing when one "follows" someone on TikTok -- or Instagram, or any online app when the person is a stranger but you spend some of your own lifetime watching them live some of theirs. What is the verb for that activity? What is the result of doing such a thing?
I would ask someone who does it but I don't know anyone since I am a baby boomer and most of my friends are too, and we don't do that. We just invest time in our own lives, and the lives of our children and grandchildren, our co-workers and friends. That takes a lot of time and effort the older you get. For example, of my close friends now, most of whom are age 60 and up, the following stories command my attention:
A woman just diagnosed with breast cancer who will soon undergo surgery.
A man hospitalized for a week for a dire condition still undiagnosed despite countless and ongoing tests.
A woman suffering from various cancers for the past 14 years.
A woman with worsening back pain facing surgery in the next few months.
A man with a chronic condition that will eventually require a bone marrow transplant.
A woman in hospice.
A woman who just lost her husband of 40-plus years after three years of watching him decline with dementia.
A woman currently occupied with helping her husband regain his strength and ability to walk after his monthlong hospital stay.
A woman battling the debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's Disease.
So I don't spend any of my time on a computer or cell phone watching the recorded shenanigans of people I don't know and will never get anything from or give anything to on TikTok, simply because there is an unseen clock that is actually ticking, and not just for me but for all of us.
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