At the end of 2021, Ruby McMahon and some of her high school classmates decided to go “TikTok sober.” Ms. McMahon had gotten hooked on TikTok during the Covid-19 pandemic and regularly spent five hours a day on the app.“For a long time, I would do one assignment and then I would reward myself with a TikTok, but then that TikTok would turn into 30,” said Ms. McMahon, a 17-year-old senior at East Lyme High School in Connecticut who has not returned to the app since she made the pact with her friends.“It kind of affected my mental health,” she added. “I was having a hard time sleeping when I was watching this many TikToks at night, but I couldn’t go to sleep without watching my TikToks first.”TikTok …
