From comedy to dance, lip-syncing to magic tricks, you can find anything you could possibly want to watch on TikTok. While the app was previously thought of as exclusively the premise of young people, the demographics are becoming increasingly diverse, with older users representing more and more of the overall makeup of the TikTok user base. 

If you’re yet to join the TikTok revolution, now is the perfect time to do so. TikTok founder ByteDance is looking to go public by early next year, despite a Chinese crackdown on big tech companies, suggesting that ByteDance is confident TikTok will continue its meteoric rise in popularity into the future. With that in mind, here are just some of the reasons we think you should download TikTok if you haven’t already.

It could launch your influencer career

If you’re hoping to become a social media influencer of any kind, TikTok is an essential download for you. The app is essentially the forefront of social media right now; any influencer worth their salt has a TikTok presence, because this is where they’re able to capture the most users’ attention. Of course, getting started on TikTok can be overwhelming, but don’t worry; there are sites out there dedicated to helping you get free TikTok likes and followers so that you can begin your social media journey in earnest.

You can join a thriving community

The TikTok community is one of the most active, helpful, and friendly communities out there in the social media world. It’s especially great for folks traditionally marginalised by society at large; there are subsections of TikTok dedicated to LGBTQ+ causes, Black content, and more. That’s not to say these communities don’t also take part in wider discussions. It’s just that no matter who you are or what you have to say, you’ll find a home on TikTok, and people to support you while you say it.

Your creative juices will flow

TikTok is all about facilitating creativity. Everything about the app – whether it’s the custom For You feed or the built-in filters and editing software in the camera – is built to help you realise your biggest and brightest creative dreams. Your imagination is the only limit when you’re creating content on TikTok, so why not give it a shot? TikTok arguably encourages creativity even more than other platforms, because its camera filters and editing tools allow you to make professional-level content on the fly.

You can put your finger on Gen Z’s pulse

Gen Z still makes up the single majority TikTok demographic; other users may outnumber them in totality, but there are more Gen Z users than any other single age group. If you’re a brand or a business and you want to target Gen Z with your product or service, then you should definitely download TikTok. You can use it to find out what’s trending right now, which in turn will tell you what kind of content Gen Z is currently consuming and how you can use that information to sell your stuff.

Education is everywhere

Whatever you want to learn, you’ll almost certainly find a tutorial for it on TikTok. Dance challenges are common, so if you want to learn the choreography for Cardi B’s “Up”, for example, then a quick glance at TikTok will help you do just that. Need to take your guitar playing to the next level? IntermediateLevelGuitarSongs is waiting for you. There’s always a TikTok tutorial for whatever you want to do, so the next time you need to learn something, think about hitting up TikTok instead of spending hours Googling.

The algorithm is incredible

Lest you fear TikTok will show you things you won’t like and you’ll get bored, think again. It’s entirely possible to spend hours browsing TikTok thanks to the For You algorithm, which is frankly uncanny in the way that it constantly shows you content it knows you’ll enjoy. Of course, if you do want to go off the beaten path, you can always manually search for new videos or find them by Googling, but if you just want a steady stream of relatable content, you’ll always be able to find it when you hang out on TikTok.

TikTok cares about bullying

On other social media platforms, bullying is rife and the platforms themselves seem either powerless or reluctant to actually do anything about it. TikTok, on the other hand, knows that its user base is particularly vulnerable to this problem, and so ByteDance keeps introducing new tools to help deal with it. Just recently, TikTok changed private messaging and video download settings for its younger users, and it doesn’t even allow users below the age of 13 to open accounts. Its age verification process is also very strict, so there are checks in place to make sure it’s not abused.

It’s great fun

Last but not least, TikTok is just incredibly fun to use. It’s enjoyable to take part in the pageantry of TikTok, creating videos, commenting on others’ content, and building a web of like-minded creators and followers. The process of making a TikTok video is inherently fun as well; there’s something really liberating about expressing yourself creatively and using as many filters and other video tools as you can to do so. Since TikTok allows you an outlet to express yourself, if you’ve ever had an interest in making creative videos, you should sign up for the app right now.