May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor...

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.