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this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2026
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It isn't because kids are smart or thinking things out, its because the tech industry platforms streamers, youtubers, and influencers, making them famous, so that now they're the culturally hegemonic "figures to emulate". This is entirely the fault of techbros.
This isn't a positive development.
We need tradespeople, scientists, mathematicians, doctors, nurses, engineers more than ever. These professions in some form are as old as recorded history.
Kids weren't exactly lining up to try and be the next Michael Jackson or Taylor Swift in the past when other career paths were still viable
We shouldn't impute too much life-wisdom on kids with respect to wages and quality of life. They generally want to grow up to be whatever society looks up to and considers prestigious.
In the past actors, musicians, and sportsball stars, were held up right alongside useful professions (or their prestigious equivalents) like teachers, doctors, astronauts, rocket scientists, bridge-builders, etc.
Its a late-stage capitalist development specific to liberal countries that no longer values the useful professions, and even looks down on them. This isn't the case in many other countries like the PRC:
China has tons of popular influencers, and they're also incredibly online too
It's because those other paths actually seem possible to be happy and financially secure in
I think there's a qualitative distinction in how much of a casino the influencer role is. Like who can hope to be Mr. Beast? Literally anyone. Where's any moment in any of his videos that has kids thinking "that couldn't be me?" For Michael Jackson, that could be any 5 seconds of him dancing and for Taylor Swift, I guess "I knew you were . . ."