How Big Tech Sells The Influencer American Dream

Forbes December 18, 2024
Brooke Erin Duffy

In a 14-minute documentary that recently premiered on The New York Times’ Op-Docs, filmmaker Faye Tsakas offers a glimpse into the lives of tween influencers Lyla and Peyton. It’s unsettling to watch the young sisters preen for the camera and plug fitness bikes, all while their parents manage their social media channels. But Tsakas’ critique of the changing career aspirations of today’s youth—what she caustically dubs the “new American dream”—is hardly new.

Over the last half decade, countless surveys indicate that social media-borne careers top young people’s list of “dream jobs.” This research suggests that anywhere between half and a staggering 86 percent of children and teens harbor influencer career aspirations. Cultural critics have responded with generational handwringing—if not alarm....

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