Ask a teen what they want to be when they grow up, and there鈥檚 a fair chance being an  is on their list.

Digital media and the people who star in it have been cultural mainstays for teens鈥� entire lives, so creating social media, video or podcast content seems a natural, albeit nontraditional, career path. And now they can  in that very field.

Arizona State University recently launched a new bachelor鈥檚 degree in content creation, offered through its Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The curriculum overlaps with that of ASU鈥檚 mass communication and media studies degree, with the major departure being a slate of specialized electives on podcasting, studio production and on-camera presence.

ASU鈥檚 announcement was met with swift criticism from many sides 鈥� from people who feel content creation is not a legitimate profession to those who question the  in launching a social media career.

But the ASU program is not the first of its kind.

And the university, which declined an interview request about the new program, is not the first to offer content creation courses.

Universities, eager to compete for a , are rolling out new majors intended to prepare students for today鈥檚 careers. Whether they lead to jobs can be up for debate.

College courses in content creation have riled critics

Many higher education institutions have started offering classes focused on the burgeoning content creation industry over the past couple years, and several have certificate or minor programs. Syracuse University, Quinnipiac University and Colorado State University offer minors, and St. Bonaventure University announced a content creation major last winter.

To Brooke Erin Duffy, a communication professor at Cornell University, these college programs represent an inflection point. During the past year, Duffy said, institutions in education and beyond have been acknowledging content creation as a viable career path 鈥� even if the term 鈥渋nfluencer鈥� itself hits a nerve.

On social media, influencers are everywhere, sharing shopping recommendations and lifestyle content or promoting beliefs about health or politics. Because even influencers with relatively small followings have loyal audiences, brands also often pay them to talk about products.

The image of a prototypical influencer, Duffy said, is usually a 鈥測oung girl who is snapping selfies and just reaping in tremendous rewards for seemingly not doing anything.鈥�

But that鈥檚 not the reality for many content creators, who are working on media production, audience retention strategies, brand partnerships and business relationships associated with their online presence.

鈥淚t is a time-consuming, labor-intensive job that often doesn鈥檛 pay well 鈥� at least in the beginning,鈥� Duffy said. 鈥淏ut a lot of that gets concealed behind 鈥� this assumption that it鈥檚 a dream job.鈥�

The creator economy is booming, but not everyone reaps the riches

Even if someone has the skills to make it in content creation, it isn鈥檛 easy to break in.

Social media is already a crowded field, and it鈥檚 going to get even more competitive in the coming years, said Max Willens, a principal analyst at Emarketer who covers the creator economy.

Emarketer forecasts that social media creator revenue in the U.S. will climb above $20 billion this year, but Willens said it鈥檚 important to contextualize what that means for individual creators.

鈥淭he overwhelming majority of that money is not going into creators鈥� pockets,鈥� he said, even though their content and their followers form the foundation of the lucrative field.

Influencers can earn money from social media platforms, which reward high engagement, and some earn commission if people buy a product they鈥檙e promoting. But the largest share of influencers鈥� earnings comes from sponsored content 鈥� getting paid to talk about a brand or product. Willens said he expects the amount brands spend distributing and amplifying creator content will eventually surpass the amount creators earn making it.

The idea that a specialized college degree will 鈥渟uddenly turn people into viral content machines deserves a bit of a reality check,鈥� Willens said.

Duffy noted that becoming an influencer often is perceived, incorrectly, as a path to get rich quick. Colleges that introduce content creation degrees may be hoping to attract new students 鈥� and their parents 鈥� who are looking for 鈥渁 job that will pay off,鈥� Duffy said. 鈥淲hether or not it does is another story.鈥�

A degree鈥檚 price is also a factor: At ASU, base tuition for Arizona residents is about $12,000 per academic year, excluding scholarships, but the total cost of attendance can exceed $37,000 after factoring in room, board and other fees. For students from outside of Arizona, tuition is more than $35,000 and the total cost of attendance is around $60,000 before scholarships.

Creators see value and transferable skills in these programs

While many content creation students may be hoping to become viral sensations, Phoenix-based creator Aiesha Beasley said she could see programs like ASU鈥檚 being valuable even to those without that dream.

鈥淗aving a digital presence and a personal brand is very important nowadays,鈥� Beasley said. Building a platform and sharing that personal brand online can help a person network and gain entry to settings they may not have had access to otherwise, she said.

Beasley, who has been a full-time content creator for three years after more than a decade posting online, works with small businesses to help optimize their social media presence. She noted that ASU鈥檚 courses would teach several transferable skills in fields such as communications and marketing.

Content creator and actor Sammy Cristerna graduated from Arizona State University this spring with a degree in sociology and political science, but said he 鈥渁bsolutely鈥� would have taken classes in the content creation program and considered the major if it had been available.

The courses, Cristerna said, would have been useful in learning how to negotiate brand deals, maximize monetization opportunities and cultivate and keep an audience. Some of those skills can be self-taught through experience, he added. Still, 鈥渋t鈥檚 nice to have that formal education.鈥�

The one thing Cristerna said he isn鈥檛 sure will translate in the classroom is personality.

To connect on camera, a person needs to have 鈥済ood energy,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 hard to teach.鈥�

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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 why, the child explained that YouTubers are famous and make lots of money.

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.

I . Since 2021, colleagues and I have spoken with a range of elementary, middle and high school students as young as 7 years old in the U.S. and Norway in 2024 to understand how children imagine their careers.

Our forthcoming research shows that social media has emerged as one of the biggest influences for young people鈥檚 career choice, second only to family, friends or teachers.

Over 60% of middle and high school students we surveyed from 2021-2024 said they wanted to be social media influencers or picked their future careers based on what they saw online. Other popular choices were professional soccer player, musician and actor.

Our process

In a separate  by the organization Education and Employers, 20,000 children, ages 7 to 11, were asked about their possible future careers and then explained how they learned about that job.

We decided to use a similar approach to understand children鈥檚 career dreams and influences.

In Wisconsin, we surveyed more than 80 different children, ages 7 to 11. We also conducted focus groups with more than 140 middle and high school students about their academic and career plans and what influenced their ideas.

We then conducted interviews in Norway with over 60 children in the same age range.

In both places, we gave kids simple prompts that included 鈥淲hen I grow up I would like to be 鈥� .鈥� We also asked them, 鈥淗ow do you know about this job?鈥�

We found that there is a disconnect between how schools are helping kids think about their possible future careers and what factors are actually influencing young people as they imagine their futures.

Influencer dreams

In some instances, students as young as 7 in Wisconsin and Norway simply drew the YouTube or TikTok logo, or wrote that they aspired to be an 鈥渋nfluencer鈥� without any idea of who or what they would influence.

They shared that YouTubers and influencers 鈥済ets lots of money鈥� and that 鈥渢hey want to be famous.鈥�

Students also drew pictures of footballers, musicians, actors and princesses. Some students shared career goals like becoming a wildlife biologist, pilot, engineer or filmmaker.

Older students were more likely to mention careers like nurse, electrician, engineer, teacher, welder, police officer and small-business owner 鈥� although becoming an influencer and content creator remained a common aspiration for teenagers and children.

We found that social media also had a positive influence on some students.

One student in a rural town said that online posts and videos encouraged them to want to become a marine biologist, even though the closest ocean is over 1,300 miles 鈥� or 2.09 million meters 鈥� away.

The limited role of schools

It鈥檚 common for middle and high school students to take online career interest surveys to help understand which jobs could be a good fit. Many schools also offer career fairs and job shadowing opportunities.

Most students, though, receive very limited individualized guidance on career paths from .

But they generally do receive some kind of prompts to help them think about what sort of career they want.

Within roughly the past decade,  began requiring personalized, multiyear educational plans that helps students as young as 11 years old develop their own education and career goals.

In 2015, for example,  that required school districts to provide academic and career planning services to students in grades 6 through 12. Students take an online career survey each year.

The students answer questions about their interests, and the online program then names a recommended career. The list typically includes traditional jobs like electrician or accountant, rather than something more modern, like content creator.

One potential reason is that many of the online career-planning programs schools use were created before social media became a central part of young people鈥檚 daily lives.

Some schools also have classes where high school students learn about different educational pathways and jobs. Yet these classes often meet only periodically, while high school students typically use . As a result, formal career education increasingly competes with a constant stream of online messages about work, success and the future.

Our focus groups with middle and high school students in Wisconsin revealed that few students find these online career planning programs at school helpful.

Students said they found career planning activities 鈥渞edundant鈥� and described them as 鈥渢he same thing we did in middle school.鈥�

One 17-year-old student in Wisconsin said the career survey was a 鈥渨aste of time. The test told me I should be a truck driver.鈥� This student took the survey when she had already been accepted into nursing school.

Students consistently said they learned more from conversations with teachers, counselors, family members and professionals than from online questionnaires.

When dreams don鈥檛 match reality

Many young people now learn about careers through TikTok videos, YouTube channels, social media personalities and online communities. These influences can play a larger role in shaping career aspirations than formal school career-planning activities.

While many people aspire to make money online as influencers or content creators, nearly half of all online content creators earn .

I think that educators and families should recognize that young people are thinking about their possible careers 鈥� they are just more likely to rely on social media, rather than online surveys at school, to imagine their futures.

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

For many schools, it鈥檚 a race to keep up. Others are leading the pack. And some are unsure what to do with it.

Artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly prominent role in Hawai驶i education, from the recent opening of the state鈥檚 first AI-focused charter school to the development of new coursework teaching students how to navigate rapidly changing technology. Teachers are also coming face-to-face with new technology, whether it鈥檚 using AI avatars to test students鈥� grasp of Mandarin Chinese vocabulary or confronting kids who are submitting assignments written by ChatGPT.

But there鈥檚 wide variation in how much teachers and students are willing to engage with the new technology. Civil Beat spoke with nearly two dozen educators, administrators and students across the state about their experiences with AI in schools and what they expect the future to look like.

A few years ago, the focus of AI in education was preventing students from cheating, said Michael Latham, president of Punahou School. Since then, he said, administrators and teachers at the O驶ahu private school have pivoted to teaching students how to use new tools responsibly, rather than banning them altogether. 

鈥淲e wanted our students to become really thoughtful and critical users,鈥� Latham said, 鈥渢o be able to understand these tools, but do so really with eyes wide open, aware of what some of the challenges would be.鈥� 

Public schools are piloting their own technology, including MagicSchool, a platform with AI tools like image generators and chatbots that teachers can tailor to their own lessons, said Winston Sakurai, educational administrative services director in the Department of Education鈥檚 Office of Curriculum and Instructional Design.  

While teachers receive training on how to use these platforms, Sakurai acknowledges that some are faster to embrace technology than others. It鈥檚 important for schools to find a balance between innovating with AI and meeting teachers where they鈥檙e at, he said. 

鈥淲e want people to embrace it,鈥� Sakurai said, 鈥渂ut we cannot afford to burn people out with the adoption of it.鈥� 

Students also have varying levels of enthusiasm for the new technology. Some are emerging as statewide experts in the field, with one Punahou student developing resources to help teachers incorporate AI into their lessons. Others are more skeptical of the technology after they鈥檝e seen their classmates cheat on assignments or receive incorrect information from AI chatbots.  

鈥淚 think personally, AI is a useful and dangerous tool,鈥� said Charwin Irebaria, a junior at McKinley High School. 鈥淧eople should be cautious about what they try to get out of AI, because it can really affect our future.鈥� 

McKinley High School

In Cynthia Reves鈥� McKinley High School classroom, an assortment of items litter students鈥� desks: a bear-shaped pencil case, neon highlighters, a manila folder stuffed with papers. 

Laptops and iPads are conspicuously absent from students鈥� workspaces. Teens place their cellphones in mint green containers minutes after the bell rings and leave their devices there for the remainder of class. 

Like many teachers, Reves is questioning if her students are using AI on their assignments 鈥� and whether it鈥檚 appropriate for them to do so. In the past year, she鈥檚 tried to eliminate some of the uncertainty by doubling down on paper and pencil assignments and reducing students鈥� use of laptops and cellphones in her class. 

鈥淲hat is dishonest use of AI?鈥� Reves said. 鈥淭hat implies there鈥檚 an honest use of AI. What is that?鈥� 

On a Friday morning in May, Reves ran her students through a series of short writing exercises to prepare them for their upcoming Advanced Placement English Language and Composition exam. Although the test would be online, Reves tasked her students with annotating passages and writing thesis statements by hand. 

鈥淚t feels like this huge tension,鈥� Reves said. 鈥淚 feel like I鈥檓 walking backwards, and yet there鈥檚 this AI thing that鈥檚 pulling forward.鈥�

Reves went to school in the 1980s, when students used typewriters to complete assignments and Macintosh computers were the newest technology. Reves has constantly adapted to change in her 30 years in education, from teaching remotely to managing cellphones in class, but she鈥檚 worried about how the latest AI tools could impact students鈥� learning. 

In the past, Reves said, she could quickly identify when a student didn鈥檛 write a paper on their own. Just by plugging the opening sentences of a paper into Google, she said, she could tell when students found a copy of a similar assignment online and claimed it as their own. 

Now, Reves doubts herself. While she occasionally questions if students have written an essay on their own, they鈥檒l deny using AI 鈥� and there鈥檚 no way to prove it, Reves said. Many AI detection tools have proven unreliable. 

Reves now confines most of her writing assignments to the classroom, rather than assigning essays as homework. If students want to finish a writing assignment during study hall, she said, she requires their teacher to sign off on the paper at the end of the period, affirming that the student completed the work on their own. 

But Reves also knows she can鈥檛 avoid AI forever. At the end of a recent English class, she assigned her students homework requiring them to read a short passage and answer questions. Once they completed the assignment, she said, they could run the writing prompts through AI to see how their answers compared to what the chatbot suggested.  

She wouldn鈥檛 have offered this option in August, Reves said. But her students have developed stronger writing skills and judgment throughout the year, and she believes they can now evaluate the AI responses鈥� critically.  

鈥淚 trust you,鈥� Reves told her students.  

Mid-Pacific Institute 

Leslie Gleim鈥檚 preschool students at Mid-Pacific Institute are confident they can outsmart ChatGPT.

On a recent Wednesday morning, Gleim led a small group of 5-year-olds in a lively conversation about the observations they made on a recent field trip to Ho驶omaluhia Botanical Garden. She encouraged students to use their imagination to describe the clouds and explain how they came to life during their visit.  

鈥淚t was the happiest cloud!鈥� one boy said. Another student speculated some of the clouds looked sad because the class hadn鈥檛 visited the garden for a few weeks. 

As the children chimed in, ChatGPT transcribed the discussion word for word on Gleim鈥檚 phone. Later, Gleim asked it to summarize the themes that emerged during the students鈥� conversation and compared the notes against her own observations.

The AI tool didn鈥檛 go unnoticed by the kids. 

鈥淲e seem smarter than Chat,鈥� one student, Knox, said as Gleim checked the AI transcription on her phone. 

鈥淎re you?鈥� she asked. The group of kids erupted into cheers and enthusiastic nods. 

A few minutes later, Knox and his classmates put their theory to the test. One by one, they spoke into Gleim鈥檚 phone, asking ChatGPT abstract questions about their field trip to the garden and the personalities they gave the clouds during their discussion. 

After every question, Gleim asked her students to evaluate ChatGPT鈥檚 answers. Students were skeptical of the responses the AI generated 鈥� and Gleim was proud. 

鈥淵ou guys won!鈥� she said as students gave ChatGPT鈥檚 answers a resounding thumbs-down.

Using ChatGPT to record and transcribe her discussions with students has significantly saved her time over the past year, Gleim said. It also increases the stakes for students. When students know ChatGPT is listening to their conversation, she said, they鈥檙e more intentional with their words. 

But Gleim doesn鈥檛 want kids to think AI is the source of all answers. When she uses ChatGPT in front of her students, she said, she鈥檚 not afraid to point out its mistakes, using phrases like, 鈥淐hat didn鈥檛 get it.鈥�  

鈥淚t鈥檚 not the gospel, but a tool,鈥� she said. 

Hawai驶i Technology Academy

Two years ago, Kingston Collman came to a sombering realization: AI was coming for his dream job.

Collman, a recent graduate from Hawai驶i Technology Academy鈥檚 Waipahu campus, spent his early years of high school studying game development and planned to pursue a career in computer science. But as AI became more advanced, he realized projects taking him a year and a half to complete could be completed in minutes by new technology. 

鈥淚 was like, freshman year, AI is going to take over,鈥� the 18-year-old said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to study for six years ahead and then be jobless.鈥� 

Collman pivoted to using AI to pursue his passion of producing social media content. For his end-of-year project, Collman developed an AI assistant to expedite the process of creating videos for social media. The assistant can generate scripts, suggest a list of video shots and assist with creating social media posts in a matter of minutes 鈥� a process that previously took him over an hour, Collman said.

The goal is to increase content creators鈥� efficiency, not to remove humans from social media altogether, Collman said, adding that viewers still want to see authentic content. 

It鈥檚 hard to tell what the future will look like for social media creators, however, and he鈥檚 worried more content could become AI-generated. Already, AI slop 鈥� low-quality videos created with AI 鈥� are becoming聽聽on YouTube and other online platforms.聽

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 real or not,鈥� he said, 鈥渨hich is very dangerous.鈥� 

Some of Collman鈥檚 peers are equally skeptical of AI and how it could dominate fields traditionally untouched by technology. 

Adriana Hunt, another recent graduate from Hawai驶i Technology Academy, is still reconciling how she can use AI to promote her artwork without compromising her creativity. For her end-of-year project, the 18-year-old asked ChatGPT to analyze her TikTok and Instagram art accounts and provide feedback on what types of posts were most likely to grow her online following. 

ChatGPT offered her advice she previously hadn鈥檛 considered, Hunt said, like adding more hashtags to her social media posts or posting more about her process of creating drawings. 

Hunt draws the line at using AI to create new art.  

When one of her teachers suggested using AI to generate ideas for her art or assist with her drawings, Hunt immediately rejected the idea. She uses art as a way to express herself and challenge her creativity 鈥� something that can鈥檛 be replicated by a few keystrokes on the computer, Hunt said. She鈥檚 also worried that relying on AI to generate art could set impossibly high standards.聽

鈥淚t鈥檚 never going to go away, because it鈥檚 now so woven into the fabric of everything,鈥� Hunt said. 鈥淏ut we can learn how to rely on it less.鈥� 

K奴lia Academy

In James Morice鈥檚 data science class, sixth graders throw out phrases like 鈥渂imodal distributions鈥� and 鈥渞ight-skewed graphs鈥� with ease. 

At K奴lia Academy, a charter school in Kalihi, data science and coding are just as important to the curriculum as English and math. K奴lia is Hawai驶i鈥檚  middle and high school, opening in 2024 with ambitious plans to develop a seven-year program specializing in data science and coding.  

Before students can pursue careers in AI engineering and technology, Morice said, they have to learn the basics. 

On a recent Thursday morning, sixth graders at K奴lia were working together to examine graphs and input formulas in Google Sheets that could help them analyze a large dataset on the maximum speeds of roller coasters across the country.    

鈥淲hat does every case represent?鈥� Morice asked the class. 鈥淲hat are the attributes you see?鈥�

The goal is to give students the expertise they need to understand how AI works so they can go on to develop new tools. 

Students still receive plenty of opportunities to work with new technology at K奴lia Academy, executive director Andy Gokce said. In English classes, Gokce said, students work with ChatGPT to receive feedback on their essays under the guidance of their teachers. Others have learned how to train AI models to distinguish between venomous and non-venomous snakes.

But Gokce doesn鈥檛 want his students to simply consume AI 鈥� he expects them to go on to lead the field and develop new technology as engineers or cybersecurity experts.聽

鈥淲e want them to know, inside and out, how it actually works,鈥� Gokce said.  

Wai膩kea Intermediate School

Can students beat AI? 

It鈥檚 a challenge sixth graders were eager to tackle in Tyler Kojima鈥檚 world history class at Wai膩kea Intermediate School on the Big Island. 

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Kojima tasked his students with defending a historical invention of their choice to an AI chatbot. He had programmed the chatbot to be skeptical of students鈥� inventions, which ranged from the Mesopotamian wheel to the woodblock printing technique. 

Kojima鈥檚 students could hold a conversation with the chatbot to convince it of the value of their invention, but they had to prove their point in eight messages or fewer. 

鈥淵ou鈥檙e not trying to throw in the towel,鈥� Kojima told his students. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e trying to beat it.鈥�

For the next 30 minutes, students furiously typed on their laptops as they responded to detailed questions from the chatbots. 

鈥淗ow do you know it鈥檚 more comfortable?鈥� the chatbot challenged one student who was trying to sell it on the value of a new camel saddle. 

鈥淲hy should we trust ordinary citizens to make important decisions about our city?鈥� it said in response to a pitch about Athenian democracy. 

It鈥檚 natural for people to be resistant to new innovations and change, Kojima told his sixth graders. When AI emerged a few years ago, he said, many adults were skeptical of the new technology 鈥� and so were his students.聽聽

At the start of the year, Kojima said, many students believed AI was taboo. Most sixth graders don鈥檛 seem to use AI in their personal lives, Kojima said, and were wary about using it for the first time. 

Kojima is hoping to change students鈥� perceptions by introducing AI tools like chatbots and image generators that can make abstract topics in world history feel more concrete and exciting. He said he鈥檚 also careful to set clear limitations on how students can use the technology, instructing the chatbots not to give students immediate answers during class activities and occasionally rejecting the feedback kids receive on their essays from AI writing tools.  

鈥淭his tool is not going away,鈥� Kojima recalled telling his students. 鈥淚t鈥檚 up to you guys to know how to use it responsibly.鈥� 

Civil Beat鈥檚 education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.