Unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple years it's almost certain that you've heard of the Hunger Games franchise. Originally it began as a dystopian trilogy written by Suzanne Collins however, with the release of four movies so far the franchise has reached new heights. To summarize, the Hunger Games is based on the idea of an annual competition where kids, or tributes as they are called, are forced to kill each other for public entertainment purposes. In addition to this, the tributes are able to receive aid from "sponsors" throughout the games.
Now this
idea of kids killing other kids may sound absurd and extreme but what many
people don't realize is that this concept is already a part of our lives today.
No of course kids aren't being forced to kill each other but this idea of kids
competing against each other is nothing new. Nowadays teenagers are competing
against each other in terms of how many likes their profile picture gets or how
many Instagram followers they have. There's this constant need and desire to
get more likes, followers, reblogs, etc... Kids are beginning to base their
worth on this form of validation from others. There's this idea in their minds
that success on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram equals
success in real life. Therefore its interesting to see to what extent people
will go to in order to gain this idea of success and popularity. For example,
some people have resorted to spending actual money to increase the amount of
followers they have on Instagram. This example perfectly demonstrates
teenagers' need to be or at least appear to be successful in social media.
Also as
seen in the Hunger Games, the importance of having people like you is highly
emphasized in today's society. This idea that people liking you can be
transformed into power is seen through the "sponsor" figures that
provide the tributes with supplies when they are in the arena. In social media
today this same idea is true and can most clearly be seen on YouTube. People on
YouTube with many subscribers and high video view counts have a unique form of
power. They are able to connect with a very large audience and in many cases
this can be used to sell products or ideas.
As you can
see we haven't quite reached the level of sending children into an arena to
slaughter each other, but there's no denying that we live in a world where
young people are constantly being pitted against each other through social
media.