TikTok - There are countless stereotypes about the negative effects of social media, many of which are so subtle and engrained in us that they are difficult to recognize within ourselves. TikTok, however, I believe to be the exception. I, like with Instagram, was one of the last people in my ninth grade class to make a TikTok account. After having TikTok for only a few weeks, I recognized how much time I wasted on it and how much worse I felt about myself in every way -- my looks, my personality, my intelligence, I doubted it all because of the curated depictions I had seen on TikTok. I kept the app for a few more years because I saw how relevant it was to my peers' humor, music taste, and fashion trends. Once the pandemic hit, I had my last straw with TikTok. The app was one of the only ways that I could communicate with my friends and other people outside my home, so I spent an increasing amount of time on it. Unsurprisingly, my hope surrounding the pandemic and my mental health plummeted, so I decided it was time for me to log off. I think my experience with and perception of TikTok is an accurate representation of my cognitive dissonance surrounding my appreciation, study of, and future in media as well as my simultaneous skepticism around it. My lack of current TikTok knowledge and the implications it has for my ability to relate and understand my peers speaks to how steadfast I am in my own decisions, especially when they concern my mental health.