TikTok: Why.... Just Why?

It's a day off and I'm sitting at home scrolling through the Snapchat stories of my friends and co-workers.  I'm just leaving one person's story and moving onto the next, but first I have to watch an advertisement, because Snapchat needs to make money somehow doesn't it?

I look at the screen, and for some reason a teenaged dude is just chilling there in a white suit and clown makeup lip syncing to some song I've never heard of before.  The screen is split though, so you know someone else must be coming to join him, right?  Well low and behold not even five seconds later another teenager in a black suit with his hair groomed to resemble a sheep and blue/black skin steps in and starts lip syncing to another part of the song where a different person seems to sing.  The ad cuts out not long after that, and I'm back with my Snapchat stories.

If you haven't guessed already, the ad is for smartphone app TikTok, which allows it's users to video record themselves lip syncing along to random songs to share with all their online followers.  It's an app that's garnered some recognition and a lot of attention from teenagers with nothing better to spend their time on.  I personally find their ads on social media to be incredibly annoying (thankfully on Snapchat I can skip past the one I described above, at least for now) and have no intentions to use the app myself anytime soon.

There seems to be quite the market for apps like TikTok though, as there is another app with essentially the same purpose titled Musical.ly. This app was all the rage about two years ago with the same audience essentially, and it looks as if most of these folks have moved to the new app.  In their ads are mostly teens, though you may see the occasional college student.  The apps are big enough that when I go to read celebrity birthdays on the radio people that use this app are listed as "stars", something that has me in disbelief, but it's true when they say you can get famous in any way shape or form right?

I just don't get it though.  What's the fun in recording yourself in some goofy costume singing along to a song most people have never heard of?  Isn't there something else these people should be doing, such as getting a job or furthering their understanding of the material they learn in school?  Hmmm... those two would just make two much sense wouldn't they?  It just amazes me that these teenagers have so much time on their hands, as I don't remember having anywhere near that amount of free time during the six years I was in high school.

But at the same time, credit must be given.  If being on these apps lets you get yourself to "celebrity" status then there must be some way it's worth putting the effort into it.  I did a quick internet search for whether or not TikTok raises money, and it turns out that if you're a user uploading multiple videos over the course of a week to a few weeks and you're getting noticed by the viewers, you have the potential to earn up to a six-figure income.  Woah!  Hold the phone there!  You're telling me that these teenagers can earn thousands, even millions of dollars just by uploading tiny fifteen second videos showcasing their lip syncing skills?  What in tarnation?  Maybe these kids have the secret success story to get money in ways other than a job, versus me blogging and trying to make money via AdSense or attempting to get people to sign up for underwriting for a sports broadcasting stream.  Maybe using this app is worth it?

Nah, at least not in my humble opinion.  Go on out and get a job, and start working on your future.  I'm at the top level for hourly supervisors at my job right now, and I couldn't be prouder.  Of course there's always room for self-improvement, but getting here was a big thing to begin with.  And it all stemmed from hard work.

So put the phone down, and socialize with your friends or go out and apply for work.   Get a good start on your life before it's too late.  Some say it's never too late, but there definitely is a point where it starts to get harder.

And one last thing, TikTok will always be trash in my mind, and there's no way to shake that opinion from me. 

What are your thoughts on TikTok?  Is it a waste of a young person's time?  Or is it a good way to potentially stash some cash and express their creative side?  Let me know in the comments.