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Sheluyang Peng's avatar

I was thinking about how the publishing industry is the way it is because for one to even be part of that industry, one needs to have a degree from a selective college while only making barely any money living in a high-COL city. So it selects for people that are super passionate about what they do, so they turn to “uplifting diverse voices” to give their lives a higher purpose. It’s like being a religious zealot: the only purpose in life is to save souls. And by souls, they mean BIPOCs, who can’t exist without benevolent white benefactors.

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Feral Finster's avatar

I can tell you why kids dream of becoming influencers.

1. In today's America, what's left of the middle class is picked clean and left to dust. There are a very few out of sight rich and then there is everyone else, barely getting by. Either you get rich or be resigned to life as a peon, fighting over an ever-shrinking slice of an ever-shrinking pie.

2. Unlike, say, investment banking, sports, medicine or nuclear physics, being an influencer requires no real talent, determination, training, responsibility, or skill, other than shamelessness, self-promotion and gimmickry. Looks help, especially if you are female, but they aren't the sole criterion for influencer success.

There may be other ways to achieve the goals set out in 1., but not many available to the average frustrated chump who knows what he's up against, who knows the score. You don't even need any real start up capital - any toolio can get a camera phone and start YouTubing.

In this, being an influencer is like being a rapper for those who can't even rap.

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