This seems absolutely nutty and maybe a little sad. A survey of 1,000 Americans between the ages of 16 and 25 found that more than a third of them would like to be social media influencers and about a quarter say this is actually their plan once they finish school.

When it came to members of Gen Z wanting to become social media influencers, we saw mind-blowing results from all regions across the USA – the lowest percentage sitting at just over 30% in the Midwest. Those from the West saw the highest percentage of individuals admitting that they would like to become an influencer at some point in their lives, with over 2 in 5. The Northeast follows closely behind with over 38% of Gen Z.

Taking a look at individual states, 41% of New York Gen Zs intend on becoming an influencer in the future, whilst 30% from LA also feel the same way.

Perhaps even more shockingly, our study found that Gen Z males (20%) are more likely than females (13%) to believe that being a social media influencer is the only choice of career for them…

When asked whether members of Gen Z plan to get a job after they finish school, 69% agreed, with 55% planning to attend college after completing their school studies. Interestingly, just over 27% of Gen Z in America plan to become social media influencers after finishing school.

So it turns out after all of the efforts to push students toward STEM careers a significant portion of young people want to be this guy:

I’m making fun of these goofy Gen Zers but I’m somewhat serious about the Vince Offer/Slap Chop reference. Isn’t a social media influencer just a more glamorous TV pitchman? Sorry…pitchperson. Sadly for Vince his name didn’t get mentioned among the top influencers.

We then asked Gen Z who their favorite social media influencers were. In the top spot is Charli D’Amelio, beating both Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner as Gen Z’s favorite content creators. The TikTok sensation who gained popularity for her dance videos on the platform has amassed a huge 193,900,000 combined followers on TikTok and Instagram.

In second place is James Charles, who rose to fame on YouTube before posting on TikTok when the app was launched in 2019. The 23-year-old is known for posting make-up tutorials and collaborating with celebrities.

Also included in the Top 10 are MR BEAST, Emma Chamberlain, Markiplier, Addison Rae, Kim Kardashian, CoryxKenshin, Jake Paul, and Kylie Jenner.

We’ve all heard of Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner. And believe it or not I know who James Charles, Jake Paul and Mr. Beast are. But I’ve never heard of the rest of these people including Chali D’Amelio who is the top influencer people would like to emulate according to this poll.

There are in fact a lot of influencers these days who are very popular without being household names. About a year or so ago, one of them moved in just a few houses down the street from me. I don’t know his name but he’s in his early 20s and drives a $250,000 car. He makes YouTube videos for a living and since he moved in we’ve seen a few odd things on our street. One day I walked outside and there was a pony being led toward the house. Not sure what that was about but it’s not something you see every day.

But the market for influencers, as large as it is, can’t possibly accommodate a quarter of Gen Zers nationwide. Maybe someone should point this out to them? If only we had an influencer to tell them about the limits of the influencer market.