>21st century equivalent of becoming a pop star or being a TV personality
Which were always lottery professions at best. Being influencers/YouTube stars/etc. may seem more accessible these days but it's probably mostly an illusion. There are (mostly) plenty of jobs but most of them are probably pretty unglamorous.
* It's more accessible to be an influencer today than a pop star 20 years ago
* Becoming an influencer is a lot like being a lottery winner.
Bands on the radio had massive audiences. A decent Youtuber is getting 10k views on their video, which is a much smaller piece of the pie than any band that aired on the radio in the early 2000s. But for every Youtuber with 10k views there's hundreds, maybe thousands, of Youtubers with videos in the single digit of views.
Conversely, there's far, far more "decent Youtubers" with 10k views now than there were bands on the radio 30 years ago. Only a very lucky few bands ever got airtime like that. 10k-view Youtubers are common.
Indeed and that's what I think is motivating so many people to become "content creators". And I don't know if that's a bad thing. If you're getting 10k views you have a comfy community around you and you're at the least making side income money. That's plenty to complement a not very demanding day job. Being a member of these comfy communities is fun, it's like being in a much smaller version of HN.
Which were always lottery professions at best. Being influencers/YouTube stars/etc. may seem more accessible these days but it's probably mostly an illusion. There are (mostly) plenty of jobs but most of them are probably pretty unglamorous.