"Generation Like" and Their Desire to be "Cool"
By watching Frontline's "The Merchants of Cool", I learned that teenagers have this desire to be “cool” making them the number one targeted consumer demographic in America. Corporations or “merchants of cool” discover new trends only to sell it back to teens. They do this by hiring “cool hunters” who try to be the first discover the new trends by taking in from the 20% of teens who are actually trend setters. Ultimately making profit off the other 80% of teens.
If teens were more aware, would this be going on? I do not think so. Perhaps big corporations invented cool, because they are the ones selling it. Perhaps their inspired by the "20 percenters". Perhaps teens have this need to be "cool" only because it is what the media tells them.
Through watching "Generation Like", I learned that social media users unknowingly advertise for corporations via their social media pages. Corporations often data mine through social media sites to find those users best fit to promote their product. For example, to promote the film Hunger Games the studio had a re-tweeting competition. The theory is that if teens relate themselves with some one that many others idolize and adore, then they too will get this sense of “being cool”; a perfect tactic for corporations.
Both "Generation Like" and "Merchants of Cool" explain how important being cool is to teen culture. Social media users, especially teens, do what I like to call free promoting just to be cool. They do this by associating themselves with what many adore through media. The difference is, more recently, corporations have been reaching teens through social media. Why? because it is easy, and social media users are doing it for free. Be aware, beware of the corporations.
By watching Frontline's "The Merchants of Cool", I learned that teenagers have this desire to be “cool” making them the number one targeted consumer demographic in America. Corporations or “merchants of cool” discover new trends only to sell it back to teens. They do this by hiring “cool hunters” who try to be the first discover the new trends by taking in from the 20% of teens who are actually trend setters. Ultimately making profit off the other 80% of teens.
If teens were more aware, would this be going on? I do not think so. Perhaps big corporations invented cool, because they are the ones selling it. Perhaps their inspired by the "20 percenters". Perhaps teens have this need to be "cool" only because it is what the media tells them.
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| Though many might now look back at this trend and joke about how different it was, ultimately many of us purchased actually purchased a pair. This is a perfect example, because merchants took the skinny jean trend from the 20% and sold it to the 80%. |
Through watching "Generation Like", I learned that social media users unknowingly advertise for corporations via their social media pages. Corporations often data mine through social media sites to find those users best fit to promote their product. For example, to promote the film Hunger Games the studio had a re-tweeting competition. The theory is that if teens relate themselves with some one that many others idolize and adore, then they too will get this sense of “being cool”; a perfect tactic for corporations.
Both "Generation Like" and "Merchants of Cool" explain how important being cool is to teen culture. Social media users, especially teens, do what I like to call free promoting just to be cool. They do this by associating themselves with what many adore through media. The difference is, more recently, corporations have been reaching teens through social media. Why? because it is easy, and social media users are doing it for free. Be aware, beware of the corporations.
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| Even ESPN uses social media to get to more people. Retweeting helps with ESPN's mission just like retweeting helped promote the film Hunger Games. |
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