The Great Attention Pickpocket with a Passport Problem
TikTok
I keep trying to live like a person who notices things. The way sunlight hits the kitchen counter. The sound my son Ben makes when he’s concentrating. The quiet satisfaction of finishing a thought without being interrupted by a man shouting life hacks at me. And then I open TikTok, and the whole experiment wobbles.
TikTok is still the digital equivalent of someone jingling keys in front of your face while whispering “don’t think, just scroll.” But now it comes with a geopolitical subplot. How fun! The United States has been wrestling the app into a new arrangement where Oracle holds the data keys and a U.S. specific algorithm is supposed to be running the show. It is a bit like watching two parents negotiate custody of a very hyper child who keeps running into traffic. And while all of that is happening, the app itself has been glitching. Videos freezing. Feeds looping. Notifications arriving like confused carrier pigeons. It feels like the platform is trying to reinvent itself while sprinting on a treadmill.
Yet here we are. Still scrolling.
The truth is that TikTok is not just chaos and bathtub soup videos. Some creators have mastered the art of the micro hook. They pull you in with a fifteen second clip that feels like candy, then suddenly you are watching a ten minute deep dive on medieval architecture or the science of sleep. It is a strange kind of educational ambush. One moment you are laughing at a raccoon stealing a donut. The next you are learning about the Roman Empire from a guy who films in his garage.
I’m partial to Jose Monkey.
So I am not deleting the app. I am trying to use it with more intention. Less “let the algorithm decide who I am” and more “I will choose what I feed my brain.” I want to be the kind of person who can enjoy a clever short video without letting it swallow an entire afternoon. I want to follow the creators who actually expand my world instead of shrinking it.
The real danger has never been the geopolitical drama or the data storage debates, although those matter. The real danger is how quietly the app steals your hours. How it convinces you that the small moments of your life are disposable. How it trains your brain to crave the next thing instead of noticing the thing right in front of you.
So I am practicing a different kind of scrolling.
A slower one.
A purposeful one.
The kind where I can enjoy the creativity without surrendering my attention like a tribute.
If you need me, I will be over here trying to remember how to be a human who can sit still long enough to hear his own thoughts.
As You Find Me (AYFM) is where Brad Hachez - a visionary neurodivergent creator - explores tech, faith, health, & life. Join the journey to streamline productivity, deepen relationships, & reflect on purpose with resilience, presence, and servant-hearted growth.