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When people my age were kids, many of them wanted to be movie stars. I'd agree that this doesn't necessarily indicate a problem. I was going to make a joke abo

When people my age were kids, many of them wanted to be movie stars. I'd agree that this doesn't necessarily indicate a problem. I was going to make a joke about how I wanted to be a ninja when I was a kid, and how clearly unlikely that is, but as an adult I do actually commonly see job openings for ninjas. (Okay, I guess it's actually a joke anyway, just not the one I thought of initially.)

unethical_ban 4y ago
Some kids wanted to be stars. And they had creative outlets that honed their physical, social and cognitive skills. The content being promoted, and the social "skills" and interactions originating from social media, are more prevalent and much, much less useful than someone wanting to play sax or act.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 4y ago
  FWIW, the only argument I was making (not speaking for OP) is that this specific observation of "80% of my students want to be social media influencers" is a weak indicator that TikTok (really, every social media platform) is creating difficulties for today's teenagers. There are other strong indicators that this is the case. > 80% of my students want to be social media influencers when they grow up (despite having very poor social skills), and the other 20% have never given it any thought. The numbers are made up, so I wouldn't expect that there's significance in the spread. My point is that the the teacher almost exclusively sees two groups: one who takes the option in vogue, and one who hasn't thought about it. To me, this suggests that something approaching 100% of their students have given this little to no thought, which jives with my experience at that age. I think we'd agree that this is a minor point and doesn't really take away from the conclusion drawn in the tweet.
- bsder 4y ago
  > much less useful than someone wanting to play sax or act. Sadly, the pay equivalence of all those actions (on median: minimal with the occasionally lottery ticket winner to keep the pipeline primed) suggests that society views them as equally non-useful.

unethical_ban 4y ago

Some kids wanted to be stars. And they had creative outlets that honed their physical, social and cognitive skills. The content being promoted, and the social "skills" and interactions originating from social media, are more prevalent and much, much less useful than someone wanting to play sax or act.

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 4y ago
FWIW, the only argument I was making (not speaking for OP) is that this specific observation of "80% of my students want to be social media influencers" is a weak indicator that TikTok (really, every social media platform) is creating difficulties for today's teenagers. There are other strong indicators that this is the case. > 80% of my students want to be social media influencers when they grow up (despite having very poor social skills), and the other 20% have never given it any thought. The numbers are made up, so I wouldn't expect that there's significance in the spread. My point is that the the teacher almost exclusively sees two groups: one who takes the option in vogue, and one who hasn't thought about it. To me, this suggests that something approaching 100% of their students have given this little to no thought, which jives with my experience at that age. I think we'd agree that this is a minor point and doesn't really take away from the conclusion drawn in the tweet.
bsder 4y ago
> much less useful than someone wanting to play sax or act. Sadly, the pay equivalence of all those actions (on median: minimal with the occasionally lottery ticket winner to keep the pipeline primed) suggests that society views them as equally non-useful.