TikTok: The New Part-Time Job

TikTok as a new source of income for university students

By Julie Liddawi

Position: Staff Writer

Jliddawi@email.lynn.edu 

Released in September 2016, TikTok has become a powerful platform for people around the world. It has since evolved to become a means of income for users from the comfort of their homes. 

Now, Lynn University students are creating and hosting short-form videos on the social media site as a first or second source of income.

TikTok is a growing sensation that helps students find income through the creator fund. The platform’s algorithms give students a chance to reach a certain number of people in order to get paid. 

And with the growing student loan debt crisis, coeds are able to use that income stream as a means of paying off liabilities. 

“After I started doing lives and the creator fund on TikTok, I was able to cover half my student debt from Lynn University,” said Nicholas Civette, a Lynn alumnus. 

As the funds and views of these accounts grow, many students find angles to TikToks lives. To TikTok, live creators need at least 1,000 followers, and after linking the student creator’s bank account, they can start to make money off of talking to people via users sending monetary gifts.

According to Sydney Bradley and Michael Espinosa, writers for the Insider, an online news magazine: “Over the past two years, live-streaming has seen a surge across major social-media platforms due to the pandemic and a growing appetite for video content. That’s meant a boost of revenue for creators, who are making hundreds — and in some cases, more than $1,000 — of dollars per week going live.”

Students at Lynn University are starting to catch on to this trend and are embracing TikTok as a means of alleviating financial debt.

“Around Christmas, I made a post because I was super nervous about paying rent and paying my bills on time because I was on unpaid maternity leave; my followers stepped up…and in total they sent me about $1,400,” said a young adult TikToker to Vice Magazine.  

For more information on TikTok’s creator fund, visit: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-gb/tiktok-creator-fund-your-questions-answered.