Is Social Media Killing Our Youngsters?

I know I’m going to sound like a boomer saying this, but let me remind you, I’m only 35 this year.

I’ve been noticing a worrying trend among youngsters, and honestly, it doesn’t seem to be stopping. More and more young people are growing up believing that they can become an influencer or, as we now like to call it, a Key Opinion Leader (KOL), and make a good living without necessarily needing an education or a conventional career. Now, before anyone jumps on me, I want to make it clear that I have absolutely nothing against influencers or KOLs. If you can build an audience, create good content, attract advertisers and turn your personal brand into a successful business, good for you. That is a legitimate career. The problem begins when young people start looking at influencing as an easy alternative to studying, learning a skill or building a proper career.

Social media has made this even more dangerous because we are constantly exposed to the winners. We see the influencer driving a Ferrari, travelling around the world, staying in luxury hotels and showing us how much money they supposedly make. We see the person who dropped out of school and became a millionaire. We see the young entrepreneur who started with nothing and now owns several businesses. What we don't see are the thousands, perhaps millions, of people who tried to do the same thing and failed. We don't see the person who spent three years making videos that nobody watched. We don't see the person who tried to become a KOL but couldn't build an audience. We don't see the person who reached their late twenties with no qualifications, little work experience and no sustainable income. They don't go viral, so we don't see them.

This is one of the biggest problems with social media. It doesn't show us reality. It shows us the most interesting parts of reality. And because we see the exceptional cases over and over again, we start thinking they are normal. They aren't.

Then comes the argument I hear quite often: "What's the point of studying? There are plenty of NUS and NTU graduates doing property, financial advisory, sales and other jobs anyway." Yes, there are. Of course there are. But that doesn't prove that education is useless. It simply proves that having a degree does not guarantee success. Those are two completely different things.

A university degree is not a golden ticket. It doesn't guarantee that you will become rich, successful or happy. There are definitely graduates who struggle financially, and there are definitely people without degrees who become extremely successful. But if we are talking about the average person, we need to stop comparing the average person with the exceptional person. The reality is that having a degree generally gives you more options. You can graduate from NUS or NTU and become a property agent. You can become a financial advisor. You can start a business. You can even become a hawker. But at least you have that qualification sitting in your pocket, and it may open doors later in life that would otherwise be closed.

I find it interesting that we love using exceptional stories to prove our point. Someone without a degree is driving a Ferrari, so suddenly we say degrees are useless. Someone who graduated from NUS becomes a hawker, so suddenly we say university was a waste of time. But these are headlines because they are unusual. Nobody writes an article about the thousands of graduates who quietly built stable careers, earn decent incomes, own a home, support their families and live relatively comfortable lives. That's not exciting. Nobody goes viral because a 35-year-old graduate has a stable job, pays his mortgage and has a healthy savings account. But that is probably much closer to reality for the average person.

And that's the part I think youngsters need to understand. There is nothing wrong with not going to university. Not everyone is academically inclined, and not everyone needs a degree to have a good career. There are many skilled professions, technical careers, businesses and trades that can provide a very good living without a university education. But if you choose not to pursue higher education, you should have a plan. Learn a skill. Build a business. Gain experience. Become good at something people are willing to pay for. Don't simply say, "I want to become an influencer." That's not a career plan. That's a dream.

And there is nothing wrong with having a dream. In fact, I think young people should dream big. But they also need to understand the difference between possibility and probability. Yes, you can become a successful KOL without a degree. Yes, you can become a millionaire without going to university. Yes, you can drop out and build a billion-dollar company. It happens. But the fact that it happens doesn't mean it is likely to happen to you.

Social media is not necessarily the enemy either. In fact, I think social media has created incredible opportunities. A young person today can build an audience from their bedroom, sell products to customers around the world, learn valuable skills for free and even start a business with very little capital. That's amazing. But the same platform that shows you the one person who made it also hides the thousands of people who didn't.

So perhaps the real lesson isn't "don't become an influencer" or "everyone must go to university." It's simply this: don't confuse what the algorithm shows you with what reality looks like.

Social media can show you a Ferrari in 15 seconds. It rarely shows you the years of failure, sacrifice, luck, uncertainty and hard work that came before it.

Maybe I really am becoming a boomer after all. But I'm not telling young people to stop dreaming. I'm telling them to dream while keeping one foot firmly planted in reality. Take risks, but understand the risks. Chase your ambitions, but have a backup plan. And if you eventually become the next big KOL and prove me wrong, I'll happily that take.

Because at the end of the day, I don't care whether the next generation becomes a doctor, engineer, entrepreneur, hawker, property agent or influencer. I just hope they don't mistake a possibility for a probability, and spend the most valuable years of their lives chasing a lifestyle that the algorithm made look much more common than it really is.