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I'm a millennial and didn't really have social media growing up. I used Facebook for a little bit in college and then deleted it. It bothered me in my 20s that

I'm a millennial and didn't really have social media growing up. I used Facebook for a little bit in college and then deleted it. It bothered me in my 20s that a lot of social things seemed to be closed to me because I didn't have some form of social media. Even though I had email and text I was somehow treated as if I was asking to be contacted on a fax machine or something like that. It's baffling. Every time I've even gotten a little bit closer to joining some online community, let alone social media, my anxiety spirals and I have severe mental health symptoms. For my own good and my disinterest I keep off of it for now. Honestly HN is as far as I push those limits! I can't imagine how this could have been though if social media was a constant throughout my childhood and middle school. It was hard enough dealing with the social fallout in my 20s but I felt like I at least had some degree of choice and control and I feel if I had taken it for granted when I was younger I would have had really severe symptoms growing up probably leading to hospitalization. Obviously the influencers in that article aren't like me in that regard but I was shocked by the 54% of younger people wanting to make money being an influencer comment, wow! And I do think there's a serious exploitative/mental health factor that's not being addressed here. I wonder how this is going to turn out for those kids later in life. I just can't imagine being under the spotlight and dependent on external validation that much.

SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago
> I wonder how this is going to turn out for those kids later in life. I just can't imagine being under the spotlight and dependent on external validation that much. It’s not just millennial who deal with this. LinkedIn is becoming inescapable… not to mention any advocacy for a “platform” as part of a resume
- cupcake-unicorn 5y ago
  That's true, I hadn't thought of LinkedIn. But my experience on there was becoming so ridiculous. Maybe it's more helpful for people who are in other industries but I was getting tons of recruiter spam etc. But yes, it sucks so much when you're expected to be tied to a platform and that's not to mention the serious privacy issues with this. As an unrelated irony a local meetup.com group focused on Inclusivity now has switched some Facebook video platform...Supposedly you don't have to have a Facebook account but I don't want to give it a try on Linux and all the privacy issues are there :/
- orzig 5y ago
  There’s always the option of creating an account, giving it an impossible-to-remember password, putting that on your ToDo list with a monthly cadence, and getting 80% of the value with ~2% of the work/stress/distraction. LinkedIn especially is easy to fire up IFF you you have a specific company to research.
iamben 5y ago
> I was shocked by the 54% of younger people wanting to make money being an influencer comment Honestly, I think it just seems to most like the current 'easy money' route. I'm in the UK - I can remember reading an alarming statistic 15 or so years ago, in the hey day of "Nuts" and "Zoo" magazine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuts_(magazine) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuts_(magazine)), regarding the number of young girls who wanted to be a Page 3/Topless model when they were old enough. Because at that time, they were always in the red top papers, with footballer boyfriends, etc etc. In 2021 you can be a no one, spend a few weeks on "Love Island" and end up with a million followers on Instagram. Your feed is then full of expensive clothes and shoes (#gifted), and there's an article every week about how "[name] from [show] gets £xx,xxx for a single Instagram post!" Why bother working in an office, or building a business, or learning a skill or a trade - when 20 minutes a day of revealing photos can make you more money than your parents earn? (See also: OnlyFans) Ironically, I think (and the article seems to show) the bulk of the really successful influencers are the ones that treat it like a business and actually work hard at it and creating content.

SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago

> I wonder how this is going to turn out for those kids later in life. I just can't imagine being under the spotlight and dependent on external validation that much. It’s not just millennial who deal with this. LinkedIn is becoming inescapable… not to mention any advocacy for a “platform” as part of a resume

cupcake-unicorn 5y ago
That's true, I hadn't thought of LinkedIn. But my experience on there was becoming so ridiculous. Maybe it's more helpful for people who are in other industries but I was getting tons of recruiter spam etc. But yes, it sucks so much when you're expected to be tied to a platform and that's not to mention the serious privacy issues with this. As an unrelated irony a local meetup.com group focused on Inclusivity now has switched some Facebook video platform...Supposedly you don't have to have a Facebook account but I don't want to give it a try on Linux and all the privacy issues are there :/
orzig 5y ago
There’s always the option of creating an account, giving it an impossible-to-remember password, putting that on your ToDo list with a monthly cadence, and getting 80% of the value with ~2% of the work/stress/distraction. LinkedIn especially is easy to fire up IFF you you have a specific company to research.

iamben 5y ago

> I was shocked by the 54% of younger people wanting to make money being an influencer comment Honestly, I think it just seems to most like the current 'easy money' route. I'm in the UK - I can remember reading an alarming statistic 15 or so years ago, in the hey day of "Nuts" and "Zoo" magazine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuts_(magazine) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuts_(magazine)), regarding the number of young girls who wanted to be a Page 3/Topless model when they were old enough. Because at that time, they were always in the red top papers, with footballer boyfriends, etc etc. In 2021 you can be a no one, spend a few weeks on "Love Island" and end up with a million followers on Instagram. Your feed is then full of expensive clothes and shoes (#gifted), and there's an article every week about how "[name] from [show] gets £xx,xxx for a single Instagram post!" Why bother working in an office, or building a business, or learning a skill or a trade - when 20 minutes a day of revealing photos can make you more money than your parents earn? (See also: OnlyFans) Ironically, I think (and the article seems to show) the bulk of the really successful influencers are the ones that treat it like a business and actually work hard at it and creating content.