To be worried about future generations…

[Nothingventurednothinggained]

Scrolling through Instagram I always come across plenty of ‘influencers’. They don’t seem to do anything worthwhile. It’s just constant selfies, throwaway cheap clothes adverts, flaunting expensive designer clothes/trainers/handbags.
I am starting to get really worried about my childrens futures. So many young people now want to be ‘influencers’ and don’t have any real work ethic.
Obviously, I will be trying my damned hardest to ensure my kids do well at school and know that they will need to work hard to get nice things (if that’s what they want).
It seems a lot of young people think this influencer lifestyle is sustainable (maybe for some, but that will be a minority).
Does anyone else worry about this?

I think people always worry about the younger generation. There is a great quote supposedly by Socrates on it.

Most kids work hard at school, harder than most people of my generation did, they take uni seriously and study hard. Mostly.

I think basing a judgement on what you see on social media is naive.

"When you stop influencing people or lose your looks - its over. It has a very short life time."

How is this different to say acting or sport as a career? Most professional sportspeople are retired by 30-35. Do you think we should discourage our children from that too?

I don’t think you can compare influencers to professional sportspeople.

Why not?

Both are earning money in a way many would consider pointless and they both have potentially short career spans, meaning you either have to earn enough during that short career to live off for the rest of your life or transition into another job in your mid 30s.

Professional sportspeople have skills that they have perfected for years. They have a strong work ethic to be the best they can in their field.
Sorry but pouting in the camera and doing some make up cannot compare.

@WindyState

"When you stop influencing people or lose your looks - its over. It has a very short life time."

How is this different to say acting or sport as a career? Most professional sportspeople are retired by 30-35. Do you think we should discourage our children from that too?

The achievements that professional athletes gain during their career are not comparable to some declaring on instagram that a certain candle is amazing or a new make up item is just fantastic. Also most professional athletes go on to coaching. A record breaking olympian medalist is not the same as some Love Island contestant selling lip gloss.

Older actors are still needed. I know an actress thats been on a few programs - my dds friend, her parents spent a fortune on acting classes/school/agents/travelling to auditions. This was time invested in a career for her.

If you are encouraging your children to be influencers then I feel sorry for them that you have so little confidence in their abilities and what they are capable off.

Looks like my original point a page back was right then. It's just down to jealousy and dislike of people earning a living in a way which doesn't fit with what you think is worthwhile, isn't it?

Footballers get paid millions to run around a bit and kick a ball. Influencers/youtubers get paid millions to advertise products. If you reduce it down like that of course it sounds easy - so why aren't all the people disparaging them off doing it then?

I'n not encouraging my children to become influencers but I wouldn't discourage them if it gave them a good income and - far more imporantly - they enjoyed it because....I'm not a judgemental dick.

@Nothingventurednothinggained

Professional sportspeople have skills that they have perfected for years. They have a strong work ethic to be the best they can in their field. Sorry but pouting in the camera and doing some make up cannot compare.

If you think all professional sportspople have "a strong work ethic to be the best in the field" you don't know much about sports.

Plenty of professional sportspeople are in it for a fast buck and were just lucky to be blessed with natural talent.

I don't worry due to influencers, I worry due to the seemingly, if you're not far left and intolerant of other opinions, and also attach a tonne of labels to yourself, you're a horrible bigot. That seems to be the loudest issue for young people IMHO.

Young adults at University not allowing debates due to their beliefs, not liking being challenged. They're only happy in their little echo chambers.

In addition I worry about teens accessing porn, and believing that, it's what sex is like, they have access to some if the most extreme and violent porn and its at their fingertips. Young boys believing that degrading, spitting and strangling their partner is normal. Young women writing on Reddit et al, saying that their bf has done xyz and being told that they're a prude for not liking it. That is a worry. Young Lesbians writing that they're repulsed by penis, and being told they need to get over it.

I worry about social media in general, as it spreads false information like fire and people believe it, and when you challenge someone with facts, they call you a liar. I really do believe it's damaged the fabric of society in the Western world. There was a documentary on Netflix called The Network (I think) and it explains why.

So yes I worry about future generations but for different reasons.

@WindyState
Oh ok, tell that to the Olympic athletes who train 10 hours a day. Who live and breathe their sport.
Are you an influencer?

[quote Nothingventurednothinggained]@WindyState
Oh ok, tell that to the Olympic athletes who train 10 hours a day. Who live and breathe their sport.
Are you an influencer? [/quote]
Yeah, because that's the only reason I could possibly have an opinion about it, if I was one myself.

Obviously I'm not discussing Olympic athletes. If nothing else because a lot of Olympic athletes actually don't make that much money from the sport alone. The sports which allow people to earn the really big bucks typically don't consider the Olympics to be the pinacle of the sport or don't even compete at the olympics at all - tennis/football/motorsport/NFL etc.

Bernard Tomic, Nick Kyrgios, Benoît Paire. 3 examples for you from just 1 sport of people who are more than happy to cruise along (and have openly said as such) earning a huge amount of money and putting in minimal effort. The premier league is full of players who consider it a job and are happy as journeymen, so is rugby, cricket, American football, baseball....

Come off it. The names you have mentioned do very well in tennis. You can’t get into grand slams if you don’t put in the work.

You’re not seeing all the other kids who are plugging away at their school work or university and part time jobs or volunteer work because that stuff doesn’t get followers on Instagram. But they exist. Universities are still able to pick and choose from the thousands that apply to get in, employers are still getting lots of applications of single posts.

Nope, won't "come of it".

Tomic especially has been very open about his lack of shits over his lack of effort.

Point is, if you think that there aren't plenty of journeyman sportspeople out there just simply earning a wage, you are deluded.

I honestly don’t think it’s anything new. There have always been celebrities, It Girls, groupies, pin ups, socialites etc, and the world has kept on turning with 99.9% of people settling down to sensible jobs. This is the latest iteration of an old phenomenon, not a completely new invention.

And you are deluded for thinking that influencing is a viable career option.

@StFrancisdeCompostela
I guess social media has made it look ‘easier’. Years ago you only read about it girls/socialites in magazines.

YABU to think that a few people on Instagram represent an entire generation.

People have been whining about the younger generations work ethic for centuries. If you made similar comments about older people you'd be torn apart for ageism.

I don’t think they represent an entire generation. It’s just something I noticed while scrolling though. With the amount of time people spend on social media it’s bound to make them think ‘I could do that too’

@Nothingventurednothinggained

Come off it. The names you have mentioned do very well in tennis. You can’t get into grand slams if you don’t put in the work.

I think this is the issue. People think you can become famous over night with minimal effort.

Maybe you can with certain vacuous people. But its always short lived and empty.

Dd15 doesn’t have Instagram. She thinks it’s false and hates it. Her favourite platform is Discourse. And bits of Snapchat, but she never sends pictures of herself.

I mean Discord which is a gamers platform.

@psydrive

YABU to think that a few people on Instagram represent an entire generation.

People have been whining about the younger generations work ethic for centuries. If you made similar comments about older people you'd be torn apart for ageism.

Its different because the apps they use are addictive so they are looking at this content for hours every day.

We have never been in this position before.

We have also never been in the position before where hard core porn was available to children through the phone they are glued to.

@Nothingventurednothinggained

And you are deluded for thinking that influencing is a viable career option.

People make money off it, so why is it not, exactly?

If it's so easy, why aren't you doing it?

Face it, you are just jealous of people earning money and being in the public eye when you are not.

Face it, you are just jealous of people earning money and being in the public eye when you are not.

That's a bit of an odd accusation imo. Not everyone wants to be in the public eye! I'd absolutely hate the idea of being famous or even a bit well-known! Tbh I find it odd that so many people appear to like the idea.