KidSpirit

What Are We Really Seeking?

FulfillmentGlobal Beat

Last month, during the National Day holiday, I went back to my hometown to visit my grandparents. My aunt's son, who is only 12 years old, also went with us. He likes to play a short video app called "Douyin" (similar to a Chinese version of YouTube, but the video in it is only a dozen seconds). Many YouTubers are the same age as my cousin. They make funny videos or game videos, win a lot of praise and comments, and have thousands of fans. My cousin, obviously, envied these children and regarded them as an example of success: "I will be a YouTuber in the future, earn a lot of money, have a lot of fans, and become a successful person!" At that moment, I began to realize that the standard of success in China has changed very much.

When I was young, my primary school teachers always liked to ask us one question: "What do you want to be in the future?" At that time, the normal answers were mostly scientists, mathematicians, and police officers. If you asked us what the standard of success was in our minds, most of us would answer: "Contribute to society! Success means to be a useful person for the country!" Full of patriotism, huh? But now, if you ask children the same question, you will get a totally different answer: "I want to be an internet celebrity, then I will be super-rich and famous!"

We can see that there is a huge difference between these two answers, which shows that the standard of success in China has changed a lot. In the past, people paid more attention to collective interests and spiritual satisfaction, hoping to become a useful person for the whole community. Most of them did not associate success with wealth or reputation. In the past, the focus of success was on not what we got, but what we paid. But now, most of the people in this generation think that real success is to gain fame and wealth. They pay more attention to material satisfaction, hope that they can get the best quality of life, and regard this as success.

What caused this difference? I personally think it's mainly the power of the media. In the past, it was the scientists who were highly praised in the news, such as Mr. Yuan Longping, who invented hybrid rice. Those who contributed to the country and society were praised by the media and loved by the people. But now, there are a lot of star-struck fans who praise internet celebrities. The media, who receive money from internet celebrities and their fans, begin to turn their camera to those who don't really contribute a lot to society but have a pretty face or sweet voice. As a result, fewer people pay attention to scientists and police officers, and children begin to view YouTubers and bloggers as their examples. Now it looks as if these Internet celebrities are more popular than scientists and can make more money faster, which is exactly the reason why people are changing their dreams----everyone tends to gain more without paying more.

Personally, I would say the trend now is really dangerous. The media no longer encourages children to contribute to the country and society but encourages them to attract people's attention and make money quickly. In this way, there will be fewer and fewer people willing to do things in a down-to-earth way. For example, there will be fewer and fewer people willing to become scientists, because scientists are often not as famous as YouTubers. In this case, new inventions and useful research will decrease, and our lives will be filled with meaningless entertainment, which we do not want to see.

Yingxin Liang is an 11th grade student from Beijing, China. She enjoys writing novels and singing. She is in the Detective Club and writes detective stories.

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Art by Jaden Flach, Brooklyn

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Art by Jaden Flach, Brooklyn