I also do think there is a little bit of passive censorship about controversial topics. For example, if you lookup "free tibet" or "free hong kong", the posts there have at most 2-5k likes, and it seems like these posts never really "hit" the algorithm's sweet spot and get famous. Sure, this is entirely anecdotal, but I do find it a bit odd how the algorithm chooses what to show and what to hide.

Once again as someone who uses it, I think tiktok and its algorithm are definitely crippling the youth of America. At the same time, it doesn't sound right to ban it.

If you play video games, write a mod/cheat for them, or even server host if the game you play allows for it. I am NOT saying to use the cheat to win, but the knowledge you gain from writing one is invaluable if you find it interesting, and the same applies for modding/server hosting. Having played a ton of video games in high school, especially counter strike, I knew a ton of people that hosted servers and wrote cheats, and I personally think it's the best pipeline to being cracked at cs, specifically my friends that developed cheats. If you have an interest in ML, train a model to make market predictions. None of these projects need to be fully flushed out, but its a good conversation piece and employers like seeing self-driven development. You only get less free time the older you get, so get started early! Also enjoy high school, don't let your work consume you.