While children once wanted to be astronauts and doctors when they grew up, today’s youngsters would much rather be TikTok stars.
According to new research, children as young as seven now list social media influencers as their dream job later in life.
Scientists found that 60 per cent of middle and high school students say they want to be influencers or have picked their career based on social media.
Multiple children simply drew a TikTok or YouTube logo when researchers asked them what they wanted to be in the future.
These tech-savvy kids told researchers that social media stars were ‘famous’ and ‘get lots of money’.
While older students were more likely to mention careers like electrician, engineer, teacher, or welder, becoming a social media star was a common aspiration for young kids and teenagers alike.
Even students who didn’t want fame for themselves often said that social media was the reason they wanted to pursue a certain career.
Other popular choices included footballers, musicians, actors, and – of course – princesses.
Researchers say that 60 per cent of children now say they want to become social media influencers, or decided what they want to be based on social media. Pictured: Child influencers Haven Garza (left) and Penelope Disick (right)
Since 2021, researchers have been interviewing elementary, middle and high school students as young as seven in the US and in Norway since 2024, to understand how kids imagine their future careers.
For their latest study, the scientists interviewed 80 children aged seven to 11 and 140 middle and high school students in Wisconsin, alongside over 60 children of similar ages in Norway.
In each trial, the children were given simple prompts, such as ‘When I grow up I would like to be …’, and were asked how they knew about that profession.
This revealed a striking similarity between American and Norwegian children’s career aspirations.
Lead author of the forthcoming paper Professor Matthew Simoneau, of the University of Wisconsin, wrote in The Conversation: ‘A second grader in Norway drew a YouTube logo when my colleagues and I asked what they wanted to be when they grow up.
‘When we asked second graders in Wisconsin this same question, we were surprised to often receive similar answers: Kids there also wanted to be YouTube influencers when they grow up.’
Professor Simoneau says that their data shows social media has become a significantly more important influence on children’s career expectations.
‘In some instances, students as young as seven in Wisconsin and Norway simply drew the YouTube or TikTok logo, or wrote that they aspired to be an “influencer” without any idea of who or what they would influence,’ he says.
Research suggests that social media influencers, such as North West (left) and Taylen Biggs (right), are a bigger influence on children’s career aspirations than school
The influence of social media wasn’t always a bad thing, as the researchers found that some students had found online content genuinely inspiring.
For example, one student in a rural area said that social media had made them want to become a marine biologist – despite the nearest ocean being over 1,300 miles away.
However, the researchers warn that dreams of fame and stardom could be setting up the next generation for disappointment.
Even among those influencers who do manage to build a following, more than half of US content creators earn less than $15,000 (£11,348) a year.
More generally, Professor Simoneau cautions that schools’ outdated careers programs are increasingly out of touch with the advice children need.
In Wisconsin, schools are legally required to provide career planning services for children in grades six through nine, and students take an online career survey each year.
But the lists of possible jobs typically include traditional roles like electrician or accountant, rather than ‘modern’ professions like content creator.
‘Our focus groups with middle and high school students in Wisconsin revealed that few students find these online career planning programs at school helpful,’ Professor Simoneau explained.
When scientists conducted a similar study in 2018, children were more likely to mention traditional careers like doctors, scientists, or accountants
‘Students said they found career planning activities “redundant” and described them as “the same thing we did in middle school.”’
For example, one student complained that the online survey said she should become a truck driver when she had, in fact, already been accepted into nursing school.
In the absence of useful, relatable advice in school, social media is ‘competing’ with formal education to shape students’ ideas about the future, the researchers said.
And they warned that unless schools seriously shake up the ways they try to help students, their research suggests that social media is now coming out on top.
