The need, want and importance?
Money, cash, dough, P, all the same, money plays a huge part in today's society. The importance of it is integrated and pounded into our heads from the moment we are born. It causes stress, happiness, anger and a range of many conflicting emotions. But why, and how has the idea that "money makes the world go round" and that it's the answer to our many problems come about, especially for the youth?
Money promoted, represented and necessitated
Money and the idea of financial stability and freedom is a thing that has been promoted ever increasingly in today's day and age. Media platforms including Tiktok have created a new culture for finance, bringing to light the importance to a newer, younger audience. Children and teens alike are being exposed to the idea of streams of income, savings and other financial terms, and with this, the younger generation is becoming more and more hungry to earn.
The introduction and creation of Digital currencies and NTF (Non-fungible tokens) have made money, investment and finances more accessible for the younger generation, as they are more involved and accustomed to technology. With the boom of NFTs in 2021 and an emerging medium going mainstream, we saw images, Jpegs etc. being traded and bought for extortionate prices. Popular NFTs such as "Bored Apes", and "Crypto punks" paved the way for the new wave of technological finance, and with the media presentation and excitement that these technological finances got, this meant that outreach grew, and grew.
"From cartoon apes to video clips, sales of NFTs reached some $25 billion in 2021 as the speculative crypto asset exploded in popularity ... Prices of some non-fungible tokens, crypto assets representing a digital item such as an image, video, or even land in virtual worlds, rose so fast last year that speculators sometimes 'flipped' them for a profit within days."
With this, it is hard to ignore the impact that money and making it has affected cultures all over the world, and the upbringing of kids in schools and their early life. NFTs and Cryptocurrencies alike have created an ideal in the youth, where they seem cool and trendy, and something that if you don't have, and are not aware of, you might be laughed at. Re-selling was a large part of my culture in school, this involved buying clothes, shoes and collectables, and then reselling them for a profit. A prime example of this was Supreme and Palace skateboards, clothing brands based out of London UK. The impact that companies like Supreme had in the late 2000s on the culture saw kids buying literal bricks with their logo printed on them for £30, and then reselling them for between £200 to £1000. The element that the investment is so low at £30, made this the perfect "Hustle" for the youth to kick start their financial, earning life. This, and the added influence of "do this or your weird and not very cool" played a huge part in kids becoming aware of financing, investment, the value of inventory and future value.
The Youth uses social media, we know this, and from a distance, social media is just a place to share your life on, let people know what you're doing, where you are, who's birthday it is. But integrated is the promotion of spending and investment. Adds, pages and profiles are seen to dedicate themselves to offering a product or financial advice, Instagram accounts of small businesses promoting their product using the feature in the app that lets them sell it, and Facebook marketplace appearing to be an eBay equivalent for social media. When money, selling and buying are promoted to our youth as heavily as it is, is there any surprise that they are so infatuated with it?
It's hard to look past the influence that social media, social figures and companies have on the development and growing obsession that money has on our society and especially the youth of today. The idea of money is simple enough, But it is hard to look past how social media and these neo-currencies have increased the circulation of money, from clothes and shoes to images and crypto, the youth have become ever increasingly influenced by money. The importance of savings pushed by parents, teachers and friends leads kids to compare their net worth to others and obsess over making more.
The social status the youth gains from having this plastic paper is something that kids crave. To splash cash is to be popular, and to make money is to be seen as mature and ahead of the curve. There are not many problems money can't solve in youth come to think of it, which may show why it is so important.