There were vibrant communities, subcultures.
Real issues were aired there. Real people connected. From the early days of Covid it provided a window into a broader world.
If you are an "influencer" build a following on multiple platforms.
If you are a business owner engage in marketing on multiple platforms.
If you need a video to tell you how to bake cupcakes or clean a kettle, learn to use Google.
If you are bored, learn to read.
If Hacker News disappeared, people would be sad because it was a unique place. And others would say "just go on Reddit it's the same thing."
And those people would be mistaking functionality for community.
Yes, all things pass. But if you read what I said at the top, it's not that we should expect things to last forever. It's that people are flip about TikTok in part because they don't seem to have more than a surface level understanding of it — or a completely different idea of what it was than the people who really used it.