For the children of today, “when I grow up” is no longer about dreaming of becoming doctors and astronauts.
It’s about going viral.
A new study suggested that social media stardom has become one of the most common career aspirations among young people. Even children as young as seven said they want to grow up to be influencers.
For the children of today, “when I grow up” is no longer about dreaming of becoming doctors and astronauts
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More than 60% of middle and high school students we surveyed from 2021 to 2024 said they wanted to be social media influencers or chose their future careers based on what they saw while scrolling on the internet.
The findings came from research conducted by Professor Matthew Simoneau, of the University of Wisconsin, and his colleagues.
To understand how kids imagine their careers these days, the team spoke to a range of elementary, middle, and high school students in the U.S. and Norway, as young as 7 years old.
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Their findings revealed that social media has become one of the biggest influences on young people’s career choices, coming in at second place right after family, friends, and teachers.
“Over 60% of middle and high school students we surveyed from 2021-2024 said they wanted to be social media influencers or picked their future careers based on what they saw online,” Simoneau wrote in The Conversation.
Other popular career choices included being a professional soccer player, musician, and actor, he said.
Social media has become one of the biggest influences on young people’s career choices
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Some students didn’t even write down the actual names of professions.
Simoneau said there were 7-year-olds and kids of other age groups in Wisconsin and Norway who simply drew the YouTube or TikTok logo.
Others said they hoped to be an “influencer” but had no idea about their target audience or what kind of content they would like to share.
But they said they “want to be famous” and believed YouTubers and influencers earn “lots of money.”
This impression was created in their minds despite the fact that nearly half of all online content creators earn less than $15,000 a year, Simoneau noted.
“Students also drew pictures of footballers, musicians, actors, and princesses,” Simoneau wrote. “Some students shared career goals like becoming a wildlife biologist, pilot, engineer, or filmmaker.”
The lead author noted that the older students were more likely to mention careers like nurse, electrician, engineer, teacher, welder, police officer, and small-business owner.
However, becoming an influencer and content creator remained a common aspiration for kids and teenagers.
Becoming an influencer and content creator remained a common aspiration for kids and teenagers
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There were some instances where social media had a positive influence on students, Simoneau said.
He cited one instance where a student living in a rural town said they wanted to become a marine biologist after being inspired by the content they saw online, even though the nearest ocean was 1,300 miles away from them.
While explaining their process of gathering data, Simoneau said his team surveyed more than 80 different children in Wisconsin, aged 7 to 11.
They also conducted focus groups with more than 140 middle and high school students to understand their academic and career plans and what influenced their ideas.
In Norway, they took interviews with over 60 children from the same age bracket.
The children in both locations were given simple prompts like “When I grow up, I would like to be … ” and were asked, “How do you know about this job?”
Some students said they “want to be famous” and believed YouTubers and influencers earn “lots of money”
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As part of the goal to understand how students develop their career aspirations, the researchers analyzed what schools are offering to aid this process.
They found that schools conduct career fairs and create shadowing opportunities, but most children do not receive adequate individualized guidance on career paths from a school counselor.
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“We found that there is a disconnect between how schools are helping kids think about their possible future careers and what factors are actually influencing young people as they imagine their futures,” Simoneau wrote.
Only a few middle and high school students found online career planning programs in their school helpful.
Researchers analyzed the different avenues that influenced children’s career aspirations
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Some called these activities “redundant” and described them as “the same thing we did in middle school.”
In one case, a 17-year-old Wisconsin girl called her career survey a “waste of time.”
“The test told me I should be a truck driver,” said the teenager, who was already accepted into nursing school when she took the career survey.
Image credits: Curated Lifestyle/Unsplash (not an actual photo)
Nevertheless, students do receive some kind of prompts to help them think about what sort of career they want.
It was also found that most middle and high school students take online career interest surveys to help understand which jobs could be a good fit.
Researchers further noted that children are always influenced by the conversations they have with people around them.
“Students consistently said they learned more from conversations with teachers, counselors, family members, and professionals than from online questionnaires,” Simoneau wrote.
“It’s like the kid that says they will be in the NBA but they don’t even play basketball,” one commented online
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