Random opinion I needed to tell the world: It's not weird or bad that kids want to grow up to be influencers.
Apparently these days, the most popular dream job among children is influencer. I've seen articles about it, and both the articles and the comments are invariably full of judgy statements about how Kids These Days^TM^ are such narcissists/their brains are being rotted by social media/they don't want to do anything valuable with their lives.
But like. I think the kids are onto something, tbh. The thing is, working a 9-5 (or 8-5, as the average job is nowadays) job is a pretty shit deal. You have no say in your work environment and have to do whatever you're told. The hours make a medieval peasant's workload look light, and that's not even counting the commute you'll likely have to make. What little free time you have left over is spent recovering, so you don't have time to do anything fun. And you get to do this for the rest of your life.
At least if you're an influencer, you set your own hours and may wind up working much less than 40 hours a week. You get to work from home, and there's a small chance you'll hit it big and get rich. There's zero chance of that at your standard office job. If you can swing it, it's not a bad deal at all.
And I don't think there's anything morally wrong with being an influencer. Are some of them shitty? Sure. But that's true of any job. You could argue that being an influencer contributes nothing to society, but really, how many jobs do contribute anything worthwhile to the world? Is it really more respectable to type numbers into spreadsheets all day just to make your boss richer? Or to write up reports no one reads? At least influencers entertain people.
TL;DR: The kids know the grind is bullshit, and they see becoming an influencer as a way to escape that.
Kids have always had wild career dreams, it's not new it's just a different medium. It's fine. I'm not sure it's a conscious decision to escape the grind though. I grew up with kids who wanted to be movie stars or athletes. Why? Because they idolised movie stars and athletes and want to be like them. It's what they're exposed to the most. Now kids are exposed to influencers the most, so they wanna be one too.
I wanted to be a train driver 🚂
That's exactly what my first thought was. How many kids did you know growing up who practiced singing into their hairbrush, convinced they would be rock stars?
I'm older than the kids today and when I grew up I wanted to be a singer or a sportsperson and everyone else did. It's just another wild dream, it's normal to want to be cool and rich and famous when you're a kid.
To be an influencer, there needs to be enough people to influence. Those are the people who need “real” jobs. No real jobs, no influencers.
Sure, but that's true of any job. If everyone were a doctor, society would fall apart. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with wanting to be a doctor, or even with a significant portion of the populace being doctors.