Social media influencer: Young people now want to be YouTubers instead of astronauts: Survey

Becoming a social media influencer is the most popular career for young people today. But it's not that easy, there's the pay gap, work fatigue, uncertainty, and more along the way.

This article was originally published on The Conversation and is being republished under a Creative Commons License. The author of this article, Nina Willment, is a Research Associate at the University of York.

A public survey conducted in 2019 revealed that children want to be YouTubers rather than astronauts.

The results of this survey generated many headlines in the media under the title 'Today's Children. But it is not surprising that 1.3 million young people in the UK want to earn income by creating different types of content on social media.

According to an estimate for the year 2021, the global social media influencer market was valued at $13.8 billion.

On an individual level, social media influencers like Zoella and Deliciously Ella have a combined net worth of £4.7 million and £2.5 million respectively.

About 300,000 youth between the ages of 18 and 26 already have the sole source of income from creating different types of content on social media.

The lifestyle advertised on social media is very attractive, but are the careers of social media influencers worth emulating?

Behind the glitz and glamor lie issues such as precarious incomes, the gender pay gap, race and disability, and mental health. I have observed these effects in my research on travel influencers and content creators, and I believe young aspiring influencers should be aware of them.

Successful influencers will be the first to claim that anyone can make it their own and enter the industry. Love Island pageant-turned-influencer Molly May Hague has been criticized for saying that everyone has 'the same 24 hours in a day when very few actually do. As an influencer, you can make it a bargain for financial gain.

Brooke Erin Duffy, an expert on the social media economy, has researched the careers of fashion bloggers, beauty vloggers, and designers. In his book Not Getting Paid to Do What You Love, he clarifies a huge difference in what makes an influencer career profitable. The content that most aspiring influencers passionately create for their project often ends up being freebies for corporate brands.

An April 2022 report by the British Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Support (DCMS) Committee identified the pay gap as a significant issue in the influencer industry. There are large pay gaps in this sector based on gender, race, and disability. The DCMS report cites a 2020 study by MSL Group, a global public relations firm, that found a 35 percent racial gap between white and black salaries.

Adesuwa Ajayi, senior talent and partner leader at AGM Talent, created an Instagram account called InfluencerPayGap to highlight the gap. The account provides a platform where influencers anonymously share stories about their experiences collaborating with brands. In addition to racial disparities, the account also revealed the pay gap for people with disabilities and LGBTQ+ influencers.