Educating the Future Influencers of America
An influencer is when an individual is trying to make a career of their creative work on social media making a difference in the world. Each social media app has a different way to pay their popular stars. Such as, in the YouTube guidelines, “Youtubers have to have a following over 20,000 subscribers in order to get paid; while being over 18 or with parent’s permission. After that it all depends on the amount of views they get on one video, plus having the ad breaks. Tiktok is another app where creators can get paid for just only a 15-45 second video”(9 Things I Wish…). For each view on one video it can be up to five cents; also you have to have above a certain amount of followers to get paid. This follower requirement is one of the many reasons why it’s so difficult to make it as an influencer. However, it is not impossible to become an influencer, it all comes down to the content you are producing and overall if you go “viral”, which is luck. Although people believe it is difficult to make it a full time job on the internet, it is imperative to add social media classes for teens who want to become influencers. So, they are able to maintain a steady income, a more positive mental health, and are able to express themselves, while being prepared for the “real world”.
After high school we see many teens struggling to figure out what they want to do in life. Many of our ideals are to have some kind of influence on the world; that could be teaching students to creating professional movies. Now, let’s say the influencer creates a video that contains entertainment and starts to gain much more attention then previous videos. This is where teachers should come into play and offer these classes explaining how to stay in the view of the public. Now, the creator has to manage to stay in the eyes of the public as much as they possibly can before the channel starts to die down. For instance, you have to put in the effort and time to have success, “But even if you *think* you know how to become a YouTube star, the truth is, you don’t. It’s about way more than unboxing your latest beauty haul or eating an unthinkable amount of spicy wings…”(“9 Things I Wish I Knew Before . . . ”). In like manner, you have to understand what social media really is and decide if you want to be a part of it.
In every social media app, there are different types of content and community groups. Each community is different in their own way, this could be the content they produce or scandals the influencers get themselves into. Every person's social media is different than their friends, some may be more on Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter, etc; while others may be on Facebook, WhatsApp, Reddit, and Discord. The key for people to come together is not to judge what anyone says or what apps they are on. Nevertheless, to survive as a creator on social media, you must understand how to deal with the hate of the community you are a part of. If you understand how guidelines and environment work, you are more likely to create a career on that platform. For example, something that is a part of each community is cancel culture; a way for people to bully influencers for very incorrect claims. As a society, we only get to observe what an influencer wants us to see, not the mental breakdowns or emotional times in their life. However, if it gets to be too much for them, then they have to speak up against their viewers. Influencers are humans and do have feelings where your words can affect them, even if you think you're a “no one” on social media. Everyone can see what you post on social media and it stays on there forever; another term to express this is “digital footprint”. This can be considered the content produced on Twitter and Facebook especially. Specifically, even if you're not a creator and just someone expressing your opinion, you can get hated on. I expressed my own opinion on Tiktok to share what I was feeling about one of my favorite influencers, “Apparently people can't grow in life. . . like everyone has done something in their past that they are not proud of! and if I was getting so much hate I wouldn't talk either! People do grow and learn from their mistakes! Everyone does, celebrities included” (O’Shea). Within minutes, my phone started to blow up with hate comments, saying how I don’t have a right to an opinion. The people who replied to my comment had no idea what I believe in, supported, and overall what I was going through myself. The people replying just saw a single individual trying to stand up for an influencer and decided to attack them through me. Still, even though I got over a hundred hateful comments, I will always stand up to the haters and be a true stan. Now, a stan is someone who truly loves the creator and will alway be loyal; even when they're getting canceled.
It’s time for a new era where having social media classes is completely normal. Since the late 2000’s we have seen many influencers rise up and take on the challenge of the online world. This left them with being able to achieve success; and it is only a matter of time till the school boards take the opportunity of normalizing teaching this in American high schools. Specifically, it’s time for a huge change, “It’s about arming a new generation with skills to capitalize on the incredible opportunities social media will provide them in life… ” (“Why Every High School Should Teach A Social Media Class”). Any teacher can learn this “topic” because there are reliable sources that can help them learn this topic and it is very similar to business and even journalism classes. There are many social media based classes that should be adding to the curriculum. The first class that should be number one is Introduction to media, this class would mainly focus on whether or not you really are passionate and want to make a living off this culture. It would have normal tests and quizzes while also being able to let the students express themselves like in an art or music class. After this class, we should next have basic classes like maintaining steady views and coming up with creative ideas, while staying on trend; each year trends will be updated for that year. Both these classes allow the student to have creative freedom on what they want to put out in the world, whether that be gaming, makeup, vlogging, etc. In addition, these two classes will both be half year courses and if students want to take another year for one of these classes they are more than welcome to repeat the class for an extra credit. The most difficult things about creating content on Youtube is that you have to know how to edit your videos. So, the next class you would take is Editing 101 which would let you learn how to edit on Adobe apps; such as Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Premiere Rush. The final classes you will take is learning how to get sponsored by brands and creating interesting merch design. Both these skills are a necessity after your channel is above 10k on any platform. The teacher who teaches these classes will have to be up to date with the brands and trends that are in that year.
Now, every country has a way to teach the younger generation how to survive in the world. The United States does not do a great job on keeping those young minds engaged, unlike England. Such as, in England we see many more students encouraged in their work, “Students attend college / sixth form. They can choose to take A levels, a type of further education qualification, if they want to go to university” (Education Systems Explained). Compared to the American school system, England has achieved so much with their own education system. This in conclusion, England letting their own students pick their own area of interest from when they were only sixteen. Now, most sixteen years have an interest and hobby they want to pursue. England does offer a type of social media based class, however they call it an Editing course. While these classes let students express themselves, the students still manage to retain information and learn from the course. On the other hand, American school systems are much more flawed than anywhere else. The school system does their best on having students go into their college career with the best grade. But, nowadays schools are much more oriented on grades and not what the experience of life is. This all leads back to social media because at the end of the day on social media you can truly be whoever you choose to be. And the United States has not learned how to make these students engaged in learning anymore.
Furthermore, over the past few years we have seen an increase of students dropping out of high school, due to the fact that they want to accomplish greater things. This allows them to be much more independent, while being successful in the “real world”. For example, a very well-known influencer, Emma Chamberlain, dropped out of high school while she was only sixteen. She started to create youtube videos with her friends during sophomore year and was much more focused on editing then her assignments from teachers. Even before she started youtube, Chamberlain rarely showed up to school and when she did attend she would never have that motivation to work hard on math and history. As a matter of fact, Chamberlain made a whole youtube video explaining her thoughts on how not continuing to go to school was best for her. In addition, she was in many AP and honor classes which made her depression and anxiety much more difficult to manage. To add, Chamberlain's mental health state was extremely low at this point, “Emma hated school at that point, and she hated it more after the administration prevented her from vlogging in class. With the support of her parents, Emma dropped out of school to focus on her mental health”(The Netline). The only thing keeping her going at that point was creating content and making others happy, however the school did find out and told her to stop making videos on school grounds. And the only reason why she started feeling good about going to school was because of her youtube channel; it made the day a thousand times better for her. Perhaps, if the administration at her school allowed her to make what she saw, as creative videos with her friends, she would have attended more classes. In fact, even offering those social media classes for Chamberlain and the other students would allow them to feel like they have a voice and could make a difference in the world. When you're at our age, where you're still trying to process and figure out who you are, it can be very hard to know that schools in the United States are focused primarily on grades. Another example of influencers making it after deciding to leave school are the Dolan twins. Ethan and Grayson Dolan both started on Vine and decided to create a Youtube channel because they were popular on the app. This was a very bright idea on their part and gained them many subscribers. After Vine shut down they still decided to do Youtube for their fans. Just like any student the twins never felt like they belonged, “The twins recently said they were “severely bullied” at high school”(Viral TikTok accuses Dolan twins of bullying at high school). Their solution was to drop out of high school only 4 months into the physical year. They both made the decision to go to LA and achieve their dreams of becoming influencers; which inevitably happened for them. Now, both the Dolan twins and Chamberlain did graduate from high school, the only difference was they did it much more quickly. While also being able to save time for editing and making video which is a very important step of an influencer's life.
One of the most important steps on growing on a social media platform is alway trying to figure out other things outside of the platform. This could be merch, charity, music industry, and even their own company. An influencer who has grown humongously on Youtube over the past year is MrBeast; also known as Jimmy Donaldson. This individual has accomplished so much in the past year due to the success of his giveaways and helping others with his money videos. Though MrBeast's true passion is Youtube he does find the time to come up with many true creative ideas. As an illustration, an idea that brought the community together and raised awareness for the environment was Team Trees. This organization was created by MrBeast to raise money to plant trees to prevent deforestation. Many other influencers spreaded this charity around there own community, “Donaldson led a successful online campaign to raise $20 million to plant trees and attracted donations from tech CEOs like Elon Musk and Susan Wojcicki, as well as YouTube stars such as Jeffree Star and PewDiePie”(How 22-year-old YouTube star MrBeast found success through elaborate stunts and giveaways). Overall, this organization raised their goal of 20 million dollars and still gets hundreds of donations. Jimmy also has many creative merch ideas with his channel logo incorporated on. He has done two special videos with merch as well, where he puts out one design for a day, we’re if you buy the sweatshirt or shirt. He promised that you will get an autograph from him and he will never sign a shirt again after that; this increased his sales. Lastly, MrBeast's most recent idea for making a living besides Youtube was to open his own fast food chain. This was extremely ambitious for him to do because food and video content are extremely different. However, it was extremely successful in the United States and many of his influential friends support him by posting photos of them eating the fast food. Now, another influencer who makes a living through a different platform is Wilbur Soot. He is a creator on the Twitch and Youtube platform, but makes music in his spare times. All his fans support the music he puts out and he has said multiple times that he would be nowhere without his fans because what he does isn’t anything “new”. In like manner, Jefree started his platform in the music industry and grew over the years to Youtube. Also, Star ended up being one of the wealthiest Youtubers, “But he quickly began focusing his energies elsewhere. Star invested his life savings into a line of liquid lipstick he created under his new company: Jeffree Star Cosmetics”(Inside YouTuber Jeffree Star's incredible rise from teen MySpace star to a makeup mogul raking in millions). His company is still to this day extremely successful; even when he gets into scandal. All these creators had to learn how to do this on their own and having social media classes explaining how to create these amazing projects would let other smaller influencers join the experience.
Something to keep in mind while trying to become an influencer is that not everyone in your social circle will be proud or supported of you until you “make it”. There are channels that are solely dedicated to vlogging their life with their family; these channels are known as family joint channels. This includes the LaBrant Fam, who films there, Cole, Savannah, Everleigh, and Posie, everyday life. The channel is maintained by Cole and Savannah who edit and films themselves and kids. They are very supportive of their own children and other young people's dreams of creating content. The family does extremely well, “They currently have 10.5 million followers and counting and racked up millions of views on every video they post”(Top 10 Family Channels on YouTube). This success on YouTube is exceedingly strong for a vlogging family. It shows a very positive effect for their children and other younger viewers because both Cole and Savannah are proud to be a part of this community and know that it is possible to make it as fair as they did. This can show how they maintain an income, how the whole family is supported by each other, and their kids are going to be able to express themselves through social media because the parents allowed them to be creative. This can all be a major factor into showing that the parents can be key on getting these influencer classes to school as soon as they possibly can.
Moreover, the government and the school system would be one of the reasons why putting social media classes in schools would not get passed. Nevertheless, the school system does do a good job of teaching us skills like math, english, and science, but not as much creative and life lesson classes. The government in generation Z and younger children’s eyes are not as positive because they are not as reliable as they were once before. Schools have many concerns and questions, “the question of whether schools should teach social media to their students? Although there can be many benefits to using social media, it can also have some serious negative effects and can lead to cases of cyberbullying. Should the dangers of using social media and internet safety be taught in schools. . . ”(Should Social Media Be Taught in Schools). Being an influencer you have to prepare yourself for the haters and cyberbullying. Not everyone will like your creative ideas, but if you learn to tone them out, you can be very successful. This would be another excellent class for school to imitate into their curriculum. On the other hand, the government throughout the year has learned how to use social media, just not as well as teenagers use it. Most teens don’t believe the government at first until their favorite influencers has spoken up about the topic of talk. In the novel, “1984”, the government knows everything and controls the conversation. “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it” (Orwell 67). Yet, this novel is just a made up story, it however does show a great example of the government alway trying to hide the expression of social media stars; especially when it goes against their views. It’s truly very frightening on how realistic “1984” has become nowadays.
Importantly, social media can be a platform to gain wealth and attention, however as an influencer you have to be prepared for when you are removed from the spotlight. One of the most changeling communities to stay relevant to is gaming. For instance, Dantdm, also known as Daniel Middleton and the Diamond Minecart in his early days on the Youtube platform. He has achieved many great things on Youtube, like being one of most popular gaming channels and Dan has achieved this by learning to keep an audience. To show why he has great success is, “Kids love DanTDM because he’s hilarious and he inspires them to unlock their creative and coding prowess through their favorite games. Parents love him because, unlike other online gamers, DanTDM makes sure his videos are refreshingly free of f-bombs and other unseemly language”(Millions of kids adore this YouTube star; here's why parents do too). This is one of the many reasons why Dan has been able to make a living on this platform. While being able to keep up with the trends of the next generation. He started with more scripted and character videos on Minecraft, then slowly moved on to other games that were popular and went back to Minecraft when it was making its comeback; however the minecraft video he puts out down are more game play videos. Another influencer who has slowly moved his way up the social steps is Tommyinit; his real name is Thomas Simons. In the past year Tommy, who is only 16 years old, has not only gained over 3 millions fans, but has been able to get paid for all the videos he puts out. Tommy is a very young creator and puts out videos that he enjoys making, which in the past year has been mainly minecraft roleplay. Still, he plans to make more videos on different games and even get more into vlogging for fun. The final influencer, who does not have as many fans as he once did is Stampylongnose; also goes by Joseph Garrett. His main and most popular videos on his channel were his Minecraft video skits. As his viewers grew up and moved on to other channels besides Minecraft, like vlogs and cooking videos. This left Joseph with not as many viewers as he had, “StampyLongHead is currently the 32nd most viewed YouTuber of all time. With 3.5 billion views and 5.8 million subscribers…”(This Is What You Should Be Asking About Stampy's Minecraft Videos). As you can clearly see his views have changed astronomically because he didn’t change the video for the audition. If there was class in his school that was dedicated on how to stay on trend it could have survived on the platform longer.
To conclude my research on adding social media classes to the school system, I went on the social media platform, Twitch and Tiktok. Thus, to ask influencers what their opinions were on becoming a fulltime creator and if that was their goal or endgame for them? The first creator who replied was, Havenplayslive, who is a much more smaller streamer on Twitch. To illustrate, Haven said, “Well… full time you mean like as my job? I’m not sure because I’m in high school right now so I really haven’t thought that far ahead… I'm just living out my high school years. When I get to senior year and I have to start actually thinking about the rest of my life, that's when I’m going to choose to start dreaming… and think about the serious stuff. But, right now I am in my junior year, so I’m just living it out… cause I want to make sure my high school years last forever… But I'm not sure yet, I want to think about the complicated stuff… just vibing you know”(Havenplayslive). This can clearly show a young teenager who is confused on what they want to do in life and it is okay to not know right now. However, if the school system did offer social media based classes there would be a much greater chance of her actually knowing if she wants to pursue an influencer career. Besides this influencer, RanbooLive, who has over 530k fans on Twitch stated, “Absolutely! Definitely is a goal for me, and I think it would be really really cool…”(RanbooLive). Now, RanbooLive is a senior in high school and plans to become a full time influencer. He’s also considered dropping out of high school entirely to focus on creating content. Yet, RanbooLive decided to stay in school and just finish his last year of high school and not move on to college. If his school did offer more social media based classes he wouldn’t feel that doubt about high school. Likewise, Tiktok is another platform for influencers to gain followers and move on to Youtube, one these influencers is Jake Ashmore. He emphasized to the question, “Yes, that is definitely a goal for me in the endgame. It allows me to be my own brand and separate myself from others”(Ashmore). Being a senior in high school can be very challenging in figuring out where you fit in. Offering these social media classes can allow students to learn about themselves and what they want to accomplish in the long run. Even if it opens your eyes and you realize you don’t want to pursue a social media job.
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