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> Do people have lost hope? Do people want to just watch negative content? No, their priorities changed. American kids want to be Youtubers and Tiktokers. Th

> Do people have lost hope? Do people want to just watch negative content? No, their priorities changed. American kids want to be Youtubers and Tiktokers. They want followers and likes. [1] Those aspirations do not require any vision or aspiration for the future. It just requires that you manage to get attention - which political trolling achieves easily (see: Twitter or Reddit). Women - and some men - have the highly-incentivized option of achieving this through varying degrees of pornography, but for most men and many women, political trolling is the easiest and fastest way of achieving this goal. --- [1] https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/07/american-kids-would-much-rather-be-youtubers-than-astronauts/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/07/american-kids-would-...

XorNot 5y ago
No it's because these are professions which actually make you rich enough to achieve dreams like "maybe not being bankrupted by healthcare" and "owning a family home".
- echelon 5y ago
  I don't think 12 year olds are thinking about healthcare or buying a family home. They're worrying about whether they have the best Fortnite skins and how many people follow them on social media.
  - heavyset_go 5y ago
    Kids who grow up around family members who can't afford medicine, doctors, food or their rent or mortgage become acutely aware of those things at a young age. Poverty, hunger and the threat/reality of homelessness make impressions, to say the least.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    Poor 12 year olds are definitely aware that they don’t live in a house, or have their own bedroom, or go on vacations like other kids at school, or go to the dentist when all the other kids have braces. I consciously avoided sports and activities where I might break bones or get injured because I knew the family was barely making it, and I had a sibling 6 years younger that needed to be taken care of too.

XorNot 5y ago

No it's because these are professions which actually make you rich enough to achieve dreams like "maybe not being bankrupted by healthcare" and "owning a family home".

echelon 5y ago
I don't think 12 year olds are thinking about healthcare or buying a family home. They're worrying about whether they have the best Fortnite skins and how many people follow them on social media.
- heavyset_go 5y ago
  Kids who grow up around family members who can't afford medicine, doctors, food or their rent or mortgage become acutely aware of those things at a young age. Poverty, hunger and the threat/reality of homelessness make impressions, to say the least.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  Poor 12 year olds are definitely aware that they don’t live in a house, or have their own bedroom, or go on vacations like other kids at school, or go to the dentist when all the other kids have braces. I consciously avoided sports and activities where I might break bones or get injured because I knew the family was barely making it, and I had a sibling 6 years younger that needed to be taken care of too.