Buy several credit cards with different due dates. Max out spending on the first one, use another to pay it off, and then repeat with a third and fourth and so on to live off debt forever.
It’s an absurd and financially dangerous idea, of course, but it was the “perfect life hack” for Tommy Zippler. At least that’s how he put it in an Oct. 11 video to his 1.6 million followers on TikTok, where the post has been viewed more than 430,000 times.
Zippler, who goes by @kingzippy on the viral-video sharing app, says he thought of the idea as he was getting ready to pay his credit-card bills. “I know it’s not possible, but I also knew that people would fall for it and think it would actually work,” said the 30-year-old from Blackwood, New Jersey. “It just shows how easy it is to spread fake information on TikTok. I think some users might actually try it. Hopefully they don’t.”
While Zippler’s profile page notes that all his “videos are jokes,” TikTok users typically don’t see such details. Instead, the app’s mysterious algorithm feeds its 800 million — and growing — users an endless scroll of videos that’s customized based on their interests. It’s influencing pop culture and shaping the lives of its millennial and Gen Z audience. The variety of content is vast and often defies categorization — everything from synchronized dance videos to comedy to a “banana giving birth” (just watch it.)
This year, as the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked economic havoc around the world, young people have increasingly turned to TikTok as a source of financial literacy and tips for managing their money. Hashtags like #sidehustle, #personalfinance, #investing and #stocktips have drawn millions of views in just a few months, and videos about how to become a millionaire by 22, which credit card to get or how to open a brokerage account have become regular programing.
Hootsuite estimates 69% of TikTok users are between ages 13 and 24. The app’s short videos on personal-finance topics are more engaging and fun than what a finance-industry professional might offer. But the scattershot nature of the content and the focus on virality over facts means it’s hard to separate reasonable lessons from ideas that are misinformed, malicious or just a joke, like Zippler’s credit card “hack.”
The speed with which information can blow through TikTok and the huge size of the potential audience can encourage people to offer promises of easy money or stock tips in exchange for “likes” on their posts and more followers, according to Kelley Cotter, a postdoctoral scholar at the School of Social & Behavioral Sciences at Arizona State University.
“People are sort of optimizing their videos for entertainment. They’re not necessarily being as diligent about fact checking information, nor is that really a major concern,” Cotter said. “The concern is more of like, ‘How do I get this video in front of people, so I can continue to sustain myself and achieve my goals?’”
Explosive Growth
The interest in personal-finance advice on TikTok has coincided with another popular pandemic pastime for millennials and Gen Z: stock trading on platforms like Robinhood. In just a few months, some have gained millions of followers by offering tips on how to trade and what shares to buy. They often direct people to take further steps, such as purchase $300 courses on their personal websites or to join their channels on communications app Discord where they offer more advice.
On Aug. 10, @14th.ryan urged people to follow him for investing advice after a 970% increase in the stock of a company he had recommended, Callon Petroleum Co. But the firm had in fact merely enacted a reverse split, adjusting the price of its shares from about $1 to $10 — a strategy that doesn’t alter market value. Then @14th.ryan posted another video in which he said he’s “no expert at all” and that “I am not liable” if anyone followed his advice. The original video is still up and has 1.1 million views, while the follow up has been viewed about 31,500 times. @14th.ryan didn’t respond to a request for comment.