A wooded space. A roaring fireplace. A little bit of gently falling snow. That is my completely satisfied place. Besides, it’s not out my window; it’s on TikTok.

For months I’ve “taught” TikTok to serve me this content material: folks, normally dudes, constructing shelters by hand within the wilderness. Most of them are ultra-sped-up timelapses that begin with a gap within the floor, an axe, and a pile of wooden. As soon as, I watched a man construct a hobbit gap that appeared just like the, uh, entrance to a Dune sandworm. I landed on cabin-in-the-woods TikTok by means of outdoor-cast-iron-cooking TikTok, and I by no means need to depart. In fact, I might need to.

Nobody actually is aware of what is going to occur to TikTok within the subsequent few weeks. Again in April, US president Joe Biden signed a invoice into legislation ordering the app’s proprietor, ByteDance, to divest and promote TikTok’s US operations to a non-Chinese language firm by January 19 or be blocked. TikTok sued, and—as of proper now—the Supreme Court docket plans to hear the case on January 10 and doubtlessly situation a ruling on whether or not or not the legislation violates free speech rights earlier than the deadline.

So, between every now and then, I’m going to be watching all the cabin-building TikToks I can.

Let’s be actual, I’d be doing this anyway. Dissociating on social media is virtually a vacation custom, and with 11 days left in 2024, watching TikToks—or scrolling Bluesky, or thumbing by way of Instagram, if these are extra your jam—is about one of the simplest ways to reset one’s mind. However TikTok guidelines for this. Sub-subgenres on the platform, like animal-fostering TikTok or furniture-refurbishing TikTok, stay some of the efficient types of psychological soothing round.

Even when TikTok prevails, no assure exists that my FYP will proceed to supply woodsy survival content material. Whereas it’s nonetheless largely a platform for popular culture junk meals and lip-sync movies, a rising variety of People use TikTok as a brand new supply. Since 2020, the share of adults who usually get information from the platform has elevated from 3 % to 17 %, in line with Pew Analysis Heart. “No social media platform we’ve studied has seen quicker development” in information, the examine’s authors wrote.