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Your Kid Want To Be A Professional E-Sport Player Or A Social Media Influencer When They Grow Up

  • Writer: The White Hatter
    The White Hatter
  • Dec 8, 2022
  • 8 min read

Updated: May 7


In this article, we are going to be talking about what parents and caregivers can say and do when our kids tell us they want to be a professional gamer or online social media influencer as a career when they get older and are out of school.

When we speak with students, especially those in elementary schools and middle school, about what they want to do as a career when they grow up, the two most common answers we hear are #1 – I want to be an online professional gamer or #2 – I want to be a social media influencer. Why do we hear this? - because of the perceived fame and the financial opportunities youth see in their online world from the influencers that they follow.

Although setting life goals are important, the reality is that becoming a professional e-gamer or online influencer requires a lot of time, effort, hard work, and often just plain luck!

"I Want To Be A Professional Gamer"

So, let’s first talk about becoming a professional gamer and what parents and youth need to know.

There is no doubt that the gaming industry has grown to the point where professional gaming tournaments offer millions of dollars in prize money for top-rated professional players. E-Sport Earnings.com has reported that the highest-paying e-sport tournaments have paid out 169 million dollars in prize money to date. Parents may also not be aware that there are now many colleges and universities in the United States that now offer full 4yr gaming scholarships. That’s right just like football, basketball, or academic scholarships, there are now universities and colleges that offer full-ride 4 yr gaming scholarships. Now because of this fact, and given that video game play is a big part of today’s youth online experience, many youths want to become professional gamers and be sponsored by big-name brands such as Red Bull. However, many are unaware of the discipline, time, effort and dedication need to become a professional player. To reach their goal, a teen will have to give up a lot - personally and socially, which may not be fully understood especially by younger teens.

Many kids and teens are not aware that their goal of becoming a professional player can often place them in direct conflict with parents over the amount of online time needed to become a professional gamer. If online gaming is not approached in a balanced way, such dedication can lead to problematic gaming behaviour in some youth, that can have negative emotional, psychological, physical, and social outcomes. The reality is that to become a professional gamer, a youth will likely have to leave traditional schooling and sacrifice any kind of social life to dedicate their full attention to gaming, which may include having to move to another country to even have a chance at entering the big leagues of professional gaming.

So, what are the chances of your child becoming a professional gamer - well according to “Healthy Gamer” - only between .1% - .3% of those who attempt to become professional gamers make it (1).  Of those who do make it to the pro leagues, only between 1% - 6% make more than $100,000.00 per year, and the average career length of a professional gamer is only 4-5 years. It is because of this fact that some professional gamers will turn to live-streaming their gameplay to build their social media followings to cash in on sponsorship deals with gaming vendors after their very short professional career has ended. Streaming can be very lucrative with some of the most popular ex-professional gamers, who now stream, making hundreds of thousands of dollars in sponsorship money. In fact, according to the “Hollywood Reporter”magazine:

“some of the very top-rated gaming streamers are making more money than many active professional e-gaming tournament players.”

However, professional gamers have a limited window during which they can grow their profiles to make a decent amount of money.  Like becoming a professional gamer, becoming a successful and financially stable gaming streamer is also very rare. 

So is becoming a professional gamer a reality – yes it is, however it is a rarity. A career as a pro-e-gamer is possible but requires many sacrifices. In fact, if a youth has not become a professional gamer by the age of 24, then their chance of doing so becomes slim to none.  Also, the career length of a professional gamer is short-lived (on average only about 4-5 years), and given that the average player only earns between 300K – 350K over their short career, having a fall-back position to do something else to stay employable is extremely important.

Yes, as a parent or caregiver we don’t want to ruin or crush our child’s dream of becoming a professional gamer, but it is also our role to bring a sense of reality to the sacrifices need to attain this goal, and the consequences of doing so.

Maybe a compromise can be that after your child graduates from high school, they can take a year to dedicate their effort full time to becoming a professional gamer.  If during that year they don’t reach that goal, then they can head back to college, university, or a trade school to learn a new skill, like learning how to code, so that they can learn how to create that new game that will hit big and make them lots of money.

"I Want To Be A Social Media Influencer"

Now the second most common career choice we hear from youth and teens – “I want to be a social media influencer”

If you ask a teen to name three social media influencers who are making lots of money online, they will provide 3 names in a matter of seconds. Ask them to name 3 CEO’s of companies who make a large amount of money, they will often struggle to do so.

decades ago in elementary school, middle school, and high school influencers were movie stars, TV stars, or professional athletes. Today, the internet has now created the ability for anyone to become famous from the comfort or their own home; thus the birth of the teen influencer was born.

In 2018, eight yr old Ryan Kaji made 22 million dollars on YouTube, unboxing and talking about toys. According to “Celebrity News Worth”, in 2022, 18yr old Charli D’Amelio had an estimated worth of 20 million dollars from the money she makes as a TikTok influencer and the sponsorship deals that have flowed from what she does on TikTok. Given the perceived attention, fame, financial opportunities, and all the free products that teens can receive, it’s no wonder they want to be the next big online influencer

Now According to a CNBC report:

“On Instagram, a micro-influencer with 15,000 followers (micro-influencers are those how have less than 50,000 followers typically) could make $457 on average for a sponsored post, Bryan Gold, CEO of #Paid, a website that connects influencers and brands, stated that with 50,000 followers on Instagram, an influencer could make $1,026 on average for a post, and with 250,000 followers, they could make $3,766. The dollar amounts continue to increase as follower count rises, Gold says.”

In her book, “(Not) Getting Paid To Do What You Love” author and researcher Brooke Duffy found that there was"

“a huge gap between those who find lucrative careers as influencers and everyone else. For most people trying to become an influencer, their passion projects of content creation often become free work for corporate brands.”

Parenting Note:

We personally know a grade 12 student here in Victoria who has become a social media influencer. This teen is so good at creating computer Lego animation videos, that even Lego has shown interest in his work. His online reputation when it comes to his computer animation skills are translating to a good monthly income and free products from hardware vendors to help him render his digitally animated creations. The money that this teen is making as an influencer will go a long way in paying for his college degree in graphic arts.  

The reality is that only a few teens ever become influencers by hitting the algorithmic jackpot of a social media platform or app. In a 2019 report by Fast Company, they found that only 85 percent of YouTube traffic went to just 3 percent of the channels and that more than 96 percent of YouTubers make less than the US federal poverty line. Even though pre-teens and teens want to be the next big influencer, it can be incredibly tough and can often come with a significant emotional toll, both online and offline.

So why have teen social media influencers become a key driver for many product vendors? -  because many online consumers use ad-blocking technology which limits the reach of traditional online advertising. Using a teen influencer bypasses this technology-gating process, thus increasing a company’s product reach to a greater customer base, especially when it comes to teen consumers. In fact, in a 2022 Young Consumer report they found, and I quote

“Young consumers are trusting influencers for product recommendations than they are the more traditional forms of advertising”

A second reason – online para-social relationships allow influencers to interact with followers their own age, a powerful medium that Increases trust, which increases persuasiveness, and this is something that vendors want to take advantage of to their financial benefit.

So, what is a parent or caregiver to do when your child says they want to be a social media influencer, here are some of our thoughts:

#1 - Approach the conversation with curiosity and without judgment, and explore accounts with your child to see why they might be interested in creating a YouTube channel or any other social media account.

#2 – Remember, online influencers can have positive messaging, such as getting out to vote, or negative messaging surrounding unattainable goals surrounding beauty and body image to help sell products.

#3 - What kind of personal exposure are you willing to allow your child to have online? Remember, being an influencer means being more public-facing online. How is what they are doing today online going to affect them in the future? From a legal standpoint, you the parent also need to digitally sheepdog your child to protect them from those who may want to financially profit from their services

#4 - Create a plan – cover the who, what, where, when, how, and why. Start educating yourself and your child about online branding, marketing, and graphic arts.  There is more to it than just posting a picture or video.

#5 - Ensure all security and Safety protocols are in place to minimize your child’s personal identifiable information from becoming exposed online

#6 - Turn Off Comments – This is especially true for younger teens. People are mean, and comments can sometimes have a negative effect on one’s mental health, and

#7 - Remember our 5 steps to online parenting: #1 allow age-appropriate agency regarding your child’s online activities, #2 parents you need to model good use of technology, your kids will model your online behaviour #3 continually communicate with your child about their online activities, #4 take part in your child’s online activities, and lastly #5 where reasonable and appropriate - ensure parental overwatch of your child’s online activities.  Research shows that children of families who engage in these 5 steps are far less likely to engage in less than desirable behaviour online.

We have attached a great parenting article from dfwchild.com that will help parents and caregivers to mentor their child if they do have their mind set on becoming an online influencer(2)

Like it or not, where a youth’s interest and focus goes, their energy usually flows! When it comes to youth who have set a personal goal to become a professional e-gamer or social media influencer, parents and caregivers have to mentor and guide that energy and help them be realistic about attaining the sometimes very lofty goals they have set for themselves. 

Knowledge and the understanding and application of that knowledge is power!

The White Hatter

References:

 
 
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