its tik tok tik tok everywhere be it kids youngsters or elders everyone is busy trying to mimic their favourite malayalam films dialogues or shake a leg to some peppy tunes through the lipsync app the popularity of the app is evident from it crossing 54 million users in the country within a short span of time similar is the case of games such as pubg or the musicmaking app smule with phone users hooked in to these sometimes even forgetting their essential activitieshowever the madras high courts recent request to the centre to ban the download of the tik tok app saying it is encouraging pornography and also a few cities in gujarat banning pubg has got many who spent extensive time with these in a fix we ask them about the impact these apps have had on them and if they could imagine a world without their virtual companionskochibased software engineer anish soman is a regular user of tik tok and has shot around 500 videos in the past eight months what attracted me to the app in the first place was that such platforms give common people like us opportunities to be popular the first video my son and i did garnered a lot of attention since then many of my videos have been shared by other social media pages when i have free time or when i feel low i think of shooting a video and that would lighten up my mood instantly i am so involved that it has got to the point of addiction he says adding that the more followers a user has the more likes their videos fetchhis popularity has in fact soared so much that when he attends social events people introduce themselves to him and ask him tik tokile chettan ale this app provides the medium to express your talent and gives you a sense of encouragement as well though you cannot get a chance in serials or in tv this gives you recognition says anish adding that all this would change if the app is banned in the countryanother engineer from kochi sakshi jethwa fights her virtual enemies almost every night through the online multiplayer game pubg and says she cant imagine the ramifications if the app is banned the app matters a lot to me because i play the game whenever i am frustrated and i want to take it out on the people around me obviously that is not possible so you vent out in the game she sayssakshi explains that its not just about randomly shooting the other gamers for the fun of it you get to plan your strategies work as part of a team and it also teaches you to be alert when theres a chance of someone else attacking you it helps in real life too when we have to go through such situations she says in the fantasy world of pubg you could win in most situations unlike in real life for