"we're paying off each other's debt on this app"

when users dream of more empowering platforms

He’s standing in front of a farmhouse in a sunny field, saying he has an idea for how you can help save it from the bank. You don’t even have to put your credit card into a GoFundMe: your seconds spent watching, your tapping finger, your like and share, translate into fractions of cents that when added to everyone else’s fractions turn into a whole lot of dollars. That’s because TikTok’s Creator Fund directly pays out money based on the views and popularity of videos. With that money, this guy can buy back his childhood home.

His May 18th video kickstarted a trend where people described their debts, their worries, and their grocery bills to their phone cameras and posted it to TikTok. “I did everything I was supposed to do growing up, everything that America told me to do to be successful,” says a woman sitting in her parked car, “and that debt will never leave me.” Watch for at least five seconds. Comment four words to juice the algorithm. Only three thousand more follows needed unti…