Despite Instinctive Snobbery, Influencer Degrees Reflect Legitimate Career Realities
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/emmabrockes. "Would I want my child to study for a social media influencer degree? No, but it’s the way of the world | Emma Brockes | The Guardian." October 1, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
The author admits her first instinct is to be horrified by a university degree in being a social media influencer, but after looking at how bad traditional media jobs have become and how similar snobbery greeted other now-respected degrees, she thinks it's actually a sensible response to today's job market. She still says she'd be privately devastated if her own kid chose it, showing the argument is more a reluctant intellectual concession than genuine enthusiasm.
Conclusion
Although her gut reaction is negative, the author concludes that degrees like Nottingham Trent's content creation/influencer BA are a reasonable, legitimate response to the current job market, even if she wouldn't personally want her own child to pursue one.
Premises
- The job market now includes many legitimate roles like social media managers, podcast producers, and video editors that this degree directly prepares students for.
- Traditional media careers are in a 'terrible state', with fewer stable jobs and less security, making independent/influencer-style work a smart career pivot.
- Criticism of this degree echoes historical snobbery directed at other vocational or non-traditional degrees (media studies, women's studies, journalism, marketing) that were later normalized.
- The 'critical thinking' standard used to dismiss such degrees is applied inconsistently, since it's never raised about equally vocational fields like medicine or law.
- A graduate's testimony that the degree was worth it for networking opportunities alone mirrors the same justification used for elite institutions like Oxbridge.
- Negative reactions are driven partly by parental anxiety about social media's harms to children rather than a rational assessment of the degree's practical merits.
Assumptions
- Networking and industry connections are a valid and sufficient justification for a degree's cost, regardless of the field's perceived prestige.
- The job market will continue trending toward content creation, independent contracting, and influencer-adjacent roles rather than reversing toward traditional media jobs.
- Societal snobbery toward vocational/non-traditional degrees is largely unjustified bias rather than a reflection of genuine differences in educational or academic value.
- A degree's legitimacy can be judged primarily by its alignment with current job listings and market demand.
- The moral/cultural objections to influencer culture (narcissism, emptiness) are not sufficient reasons to dismiss the career path or related education.