Polissa begins her eulogy by expressing that the app created a beautiful, vibrant community of artists. She also loves that the app users “taught her language,” i.e. taught her to be a better munchie. She learned about accepting the ADHD diagnosis that she received at 25 through the app, and discovered that she’s actually autistic through watching autism videos on the platform. “There’s so many symptoms!” TikTok did that for her!
TikTok also gave her friends, 6557 of them! “People decided I was worth following! As a friend! As a voice, as a creator!” That’s not a small number to her! It meant everything to her!
And then the US government saw her beautiful community and decided to destroy it, because it didn’t like what they made. She will miss everyone, and be angry and grieve with them, because this community means that much to her.
Worries where she (and TikTok users as a whole) will go next. She wanted to continue updating her weight loss journey there, but that is becoming very unlikely as the ban date is imminent. She’s so proud of those 12 pounds she’s lost so far.
She did that!
Weight Loss TikTok inspired her to do that!
After expressing sadness that this may be one of her last videos on the site ever, she advises her followers to never stop fighting and to contribute to their new digital communities. Claims that TikTok saved her life after that time she claims that she hallucinated herself telling her to kill herself (
and in turn cost Joh a babysitting gig because he had to go back home to her), because she was that alone and isolated as a disabled person before TikTok. Now she’s trying to reconnect to her real life community through her local gym. It’s hard because of her agoraphobia, but she’s making it work. “I’m trying, and I want you to try, too! People are worth the try!”
Turns her attention to Black Monday/Vigil Day. Polissa hopes that her worldwide movement is still gaining traction (author’s note: it died right before she temporarily left the app for “hate” for a month).
After hoping that it will actually happen because of how popular that video was (over 800,000 views and likes), she immediately notes that despite that video being popular, TikTok really
was a ticking clock. Blames the algorithm for not amplifying small voices like hers, and for only making her videos that do not show her face mini viral. “I had so many worthy things to say! And a lot of people did respond, and it didn’t reach everywhere I didn’t want to reach! And I think a lot of us on here feel that way! Maybe whatever app we come up with next will have better reach for everyone and not just the super popular creators!”
It also failed in not protecting her from stalkers and Kiwi Farms. “I was doxxed, and followed, and words taken out of context and spun in so many ways by a
godawful website, because the TikTok algorithm did not know how to stop them! Maybe the next site will figure that out!”
Closes by reinstating that we must be kind to each other in a hard, dark world, and she’ll miss TikTok and the community it spawned very very much. She may or may not post any more before then because it’s too painful for her. She sends her love regardless. “I will miss you!”
Cue Dr Now “You already got 600 pound of food in you” GIF
