Why I quit TikTok after going viral
And why I started this Substack email
With the TikTok ban looming in the news, I thought I’d share my experience with my 15 minutes of fame on the site.
It started innocently enough a few years ago. I had teenage kids who were on TikTok and I had to check out what they were doing. As a fun experiment with my youngest daughter Mae, we started shooting TikToks on the way to school.
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That was 2019. As I worked with the format posting on various criminal defense topics I found that short videos on guns, fake IDs, and minors in possession of alcohol would drive higher views. In three years I amassed over 50,000 followers and was regularly getting over 100,000 views on my posts. Not bad for a lawyer I thought.
And then I went viral.
I really wasn’t expecting it. The video took me about 2 minutes to put together. It was only 10 seconds long. I posted it and went to bed. In the morning I woke up to something like 500,000 views.
That day my kids started getting calls and texts from their friends about it. The clip had a million views before the end of the day. The next day my son at FSU said he had people he didnt even know coming up to him at bars asking if I was his dad. Two million views. He told me that another website called Total Frat Move had reposted my video. It shot to over three million views.
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And now, I have basically quit TikTok. Since then I have posted on a few rare occasions. But I have removed the app from my phone and have all but abandoned the platform. And it is not because the Chinese own the app or the looming shutdown.
Why I quit.
One of the main reasons I quit was the addictive nature of the platform. TikTok’s algorithm has the ability to suck you in on a level my willpower could not compete with.1 On a personal level it wasn’t healthy.
Second, it wasn’t generating any business. I got one or two calls saying they found me on TikTok. But they were never from anyone local. These days a client will say they saw me on TikTok, but that is after they hired me. I don’t think social media is the big business driver people say it is. I think I have spent the time and effort to master most of the platforms, but they don’t really drive business.
Third, I don’t think TikTok, or any of these other social media apps, fuel any meaningful connection. At first I thought these apps were helping me connect with other people, but they don’t. Despite being called social media, they aren’t really social. There is no sense of community. No real interaction.
Why I started this Substack.
I was first drawn to Substack by its super clean format. It is just me writing to you and other local attorneys. Period. It is direct. There is no filter. No ads. It’s not scrollable.
I like the connection. Friends and fellow attorneys email me back when something rings true with them. Or they call, or we have lunch to discuss further. The platform is more focused, but it is way more social. And I think the profession is better when attorneys are more social with each other.
So, that is where I have turned my focus. Thanks for reading and commenting and sharing with your friends.
I also removed facebook and Instagram from my phone. If you need a little inspiration you might want to read the book Stolen Focus. It helped me make the jump.