In the film Generation Like, the 2014 update to the film Merchants of Cool, Douglass Rushkoff looks at social media, and how marketing to teens works in the digital age–that is, getting teens to literally do the marketing for corporations, which generates a sense of “authenticity” or “bottom-up energy” that does not appear like corporate controlled marketing of the past, such as you saw in Merchants of Cool.
Building on his “pulling up the curtain” over the power and influence of corporations have via social media, Rushkoff notes that one of the dominant ideologies of the digital age, at least for younger people, is that social media is “empowering”. What do you think about this notion generally? How might it not be empowering? What do you think of Rushkoff’s skepticism and criticism of this widespread feeling?
Rushkoff also seems to suggests that the interest in being “social media famous” or generating “likes” could be a negative trend for the social lives of teens. How might this impact or change the notion of “friendship” in today’s society?