Late Saturday night, as I reflected on the day’s lessons, I felt a familiar emptiness—the kind only TikTok could fill. It was also the emptiness of not knowing what had happened in the lives of Bhutanese people that week, through TikTok.
I decided to cut back on my TikTok use after I began to feel its impact on me. Apart from my addiction to the app, I used it as an incentive to complete tasks. Whenever I felt like I didn’t have the attention or motivation to focus on tasks such as reading or writing, I used TikTok as an impetus. But the habit backfired. I became increasingly dependent on the app just to get work done. While I have managed to balance my TikTok use, I’ve realized that there’s a cost to being off TikTok in Bhutan- A complete sense of isolation, a Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). That fear is particularly strong during the weekends, as I am left with free time and I’d timed those days to use the app.
TikTok’s Popularity in Bhutan
A good chunk of the Bhutanese population are TikTok users, with officials from the app visiting Bhutan earlier this year. The app has helped launch careers for people like Lha Dorji, who has nearly 300,000 followers, 37.5 percent of the country’s population. Additionally, a lot of the discourse takes place there. And going Live on TikTok and watching that Live is currently the most popular pastime amongst Bhutanese people. Even though I didn’t have a TikTok account, I remember going Live and feeling that high that many others might also experience when doing something similar.
TikTok content in Bhutan covers a wide range of topics. From singing competitions, to people playing games such as Truth or Dare, to people who provide relationship advice, the app acts like a substitute for real life.
The least popular of contents could be fan edits of local celebrities, as it seems every Bhutanese with a TikTok account is a celebrity in their own right. I remember being off TikTok, intermittently, for a couple of months, and feeling like I had lived under a rock during that duration, mostly in a good way.
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