I sat down in my easy chair last evening to watch the 5 o’clock news. One of the lead stories was the shocking news that members of Congress were acting in BIPARTISAN support for a particular issue. I will admit that I was kind of hoping that perhaps the bipartison support was for something along the lines of climate change or immigration or gun control.

Nope. There are apparently bills being offered by both Democrat and Republican members of Congress to ban Tik Tok on our media devices. I’m sure the members of Congress would LOVE to be working on those issues mentioned above, but there are time considerations. There is no time to work on compromises for those issues, People. We have to worry about Tik Tok.

I have no right to opine about Tik Tok. I know the term. I know some people (eh-hem, Trump and Musk) have been in the news because of Tik Tok. But to me, Tik Tok is the sound that our clock in the living room makes, driving my sister Jen CRAZY from the noise when she stays with us. To hear her talk, it’s like Big Ben is keeping her awake.

I don’t use Tik Tok. In fact, I don’t use many kinds of social media. I check my Instagram every night to find out what my grands and my great-nieces and -nephews are up to. I check my Facebook every night to see what all the Baby Boomers in my life are up to. The only social medium to which I could declare an addiction is Pinterest. I check Pinterest often to find out if they still think I need to know how to build a chicken coop.

Tik Tok is apparently quite addictive. I know this because our eldest grandchild Adelaide, who is the most organized and serious person I know told me once that she has to set her Tik Tok on a timer because once she gets on the app, she loses complete track of time. It might be hard for me to imagine that, except that I am that when it comes to putting together a puzzle. I can sit down at the table after lunch, and before you know it, it’s dinnertime.

As I understand it, you watch short videos on Tik Tok. You “like” them or “not like” them. The algorhythm used by Tik Tok then decides what to feed you. A friend of mine told me when she started using Tik Tok, it didn’t take much “liking” and “not liking” before she was getting nothing but videos of dogs.

For me, it would be videos of toddlers doing adorable things that I am sure are being edited and photoshopped by parents, but nevertheless, make me smile.

Or Prince William and Princess Kate.

The moral to this story, of course, is don’t you wish that the fact that Democrats and Republicans are working together on an issue didn’t have to be so shocking?