Social manipulation works far better on children and they figured that out some time ago. I heard my girlfriend's then 10 year old son complaining 5 years ago

Social manipulation works far better on children and they figured that out some time ago. I heard my girlfriend's then 10 year old son complaining 5 years ago now about fortnite players being garbage because they had no skins and were called 'noskins'. I didn't play it so I asked if they gave stat increases or anything and he said no, just cosmetic. I asked what a skin had to do with playing ability and was told 'Tch, you just don't get it' -replete with eyeroll. A few months ago heard the same thing from a friend's kid (~same age) who'd just gotten his first xbox. 'Eww noskins', with the added cherry of him complaining about using a controller as it was so much harder than using a phone screen. YouTube was the cause of it back 5 years ago, idk about now, but the companies get their messages in no matter what. It all works far too often and worries me about where we are headed. I often wonder how I'd have turned out if watching GI Joe and Transformers as a kid had beaten me upside the head with more than 'dont steal, drugs bad, police good, buy toys' messages of the 80s.