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Documentary Research

  • Writer: Jessica-chloe Watson
    Jessica-chloe Watson
  • May 6, 2024
  • 10 min read

Exploring the faces behind the for you page; A research document with primary and secondary sources.


Documentary research

The social curve

Monday 15th May



The Faces Behind the For You Page

It’s a fact that the evolution of social media has shaped our generation. We are what’s known as the Ipad kids or the square-eyed teens. In a sense this is true, I don’t know about you but I can’t sit down and start my lunch until I’ve found something to watch, and by the time I usually go to eat the meal I’ve just cooked, It’s cold. I also feel I can speak on behalf of our generation as I myself am 18 years old and currently studying media, and well, social media marketing falls beautifully under that. So you can definitely say I’ve grown up at the peak of developing technology. I know this essay is about social media, however, I do think technology itself is a crucial catalyst influencing the power of social media. After all, we couldn’t have social media at the tip of our fingers 24/7 if it wasn’t for the latest smartphones, smartwatches, laptops, Ipads… the list goes on. 


Tikok. It’s great isnt it? A healthy or unhealthy addiction, we can all admit you can spend hours on that app without realising it. I feel like all you hear from all of these tech experts, psychologists and scientists, is negative stuff about this platform, but from a personal overview, I think it’s great. Where else can you learn the 50 states of America, the best Japanese food places in Manchester or which crystal gives you the best career prospects, all in the space of a 15-30 second video that also maintains your complete attention? The truth is you can’t. It’s a great educational resource for schools and students, it’s a space to share art, create and share businesses, find like-minded people, share inspiration, find jobs, get help on finding jobs, wellness tips…the list ‘again’ goes on. But not only can you post anything or watch anything, but you can also now make a living from it. You can earn money. Scrap that, you can earn BIG money. You can earn a living from just being yourself, why wouldn’t you want to become a tiktoker?...


So, i've got a metaphorical proposal that I want you to imagine. It’s 10 pm you’ve just got home after a busy day at a work/school that you hate, a long day of travelling to your job/ school and back again, you’ve been moaned at all day for not hitting targets, and you crash on the sofa with the biggest migraine ever and just want to sleep, but you’ve just received an email in your inbox that says; 


Hello [your name],


I apologise for the out-of-the-blue email, however, I have been meaning to contact you for a while.


We think your realism and individuality are qualities that deserve to be seen by the world. Therefore, we would love to offer you an ambassador status with our agency. 


We are a new company that celebrates people’s values and talents and we help them to do this for a living. 


The role and responsibilities:

  • Post a minimum of 3 videos a week of your choosing onto one of your social media accounts.

  • Quit your awful degrading job/ school course

  • Attend celebrity parties, holidays and events for free at no extra cost

  • Receive PR packages from huge names brands at no extra cost

  • You will meet likeminded people and make friends

  • with minimum pay of £1,500 per video that you post

  • You will gain millions of followers and become verified on all platforms.


All you need to do is say yes and all this will be yours.


Best wishes

[your dream brand]


Okay, so if you say no to this next question you are lying. Would you take this, or even consider taking it? If we were to discount all of the negatives that we surround with an ‘ambassador or influencer status’ you would jump at this opportunity. You read those responsibilities and if your brains are anything like mine I immediately would have said ‘fuck yes’ and quit my job there and then. So, what were your initial thoughts? What was the first thing that popped into your head? A word or phrase, anything but don’t overthink it. I know my advancing thought was then ‘What’s the catch?’. We’re humans, right? Trust is something so hard for the human mind to comprehend. It’s the fear of the unknown, the sidetracked thoughts of influencer horror stories. Is this a joke? Is this real? Could I actually make it by just being me? Well, these are the exact reactions I can imagine most of the modern social celebs have experienced in their initial breakthrough. An interview with Charlie d’amelio and ‘Entertainment Tonight’ talked about how this was precisely how Charlie’s fame began. She was living a normal life, and then she was sent an email. It just so happened that, that one email would change her life forever. 


With TikTok being such a huge platform in the present day, it has almost become easier to get more and more out of it. What i mean by this is that more and more people are downloading the app therefore, engagement and activity is growing at a rapid rate, which encourages promo to advance and also investment. That investment has ended up pumping millions of pounds into tiktoks algorithm. Companies like ‘campfire marketing’ have a whole ideollogy based on the power of TikTok marketing and how it’s ‘the next big thing’. This huge investment has led to tiktok becoming a paid ambassador hub. There are hidden AD’s everywhere. As mentioned before this proves that there is big money in the business. Which is maybe why this career prospect has become so appealing. The only issue with this is that its directly happening in front of the public eye, people are watching these average people, start from nothing and become millionaires. Why spend a year studying and working at dead-end jobs to make it to the top when nobody else you see is? The other thing with that point is that people are working behind the scenes to become millionaires or gain successful careers, it’s just that it isn’t plastered all over your phone every time you go on there for a quick scroll. 


This is where there are incredible dangers for our upcoming generations. This new idea of success is not deemed as ‘realistic’ and younger people are giving up the whole realistic route for the one they see on their for you pages. TikTok is changing young people’s career prospects. But i want to explore whether this is a good or bad thing. 


To break it up i want to start with a video trend that was out a few months ago. The BBC released a competition through TikTok which was a current cbbc newsround presenter reading out a teleprompt. It was then instructed for others to duet with this video, tagging the creators, where the new CBBC presenter would be selected via the best video. This video had 6.2m views and was dueted 1.4k times. This was a legit advertisement which lead to two ordinary people being hired based on this tiktok. I don’t know about you but out of 1.4k people that’s impressive. Its crazy to think that TikTok could now become the future of hiring or advertising jobs. But what about the people who have trained for years in media and acting to get that presenter job? Does education and training mean nothing anymore? I have just recently applied for a job with Camp America which I saw and discovered on TikTok! There’s a positive right there. why couldn’t it be the future of advertising jobs? it’s fast, free promo and reaches a large audience at once. However, you could also argue that it’s made the employment scene even more competitive. 


I stand by that our world is in an employment crisis. Scientists are becoming lorry drivers and accountants are working as McDonald’s managers. This is something we have all been made aware of for years. Personally, I think tiktok has made it worse. What was an overwhelming desperation for a job you enjoy, has now become an desperation for a job that pays well. Which is where it merges into the appealing nature of becoming an influencer. Young people are seeing the struggles their parents and family members face. They watch their trusted adults come home miserable and exhausted from jobs that are the opposite of their dreams and aspirations. One of the biggest fears going into this world is now ending up in that exact position. One thing I have noticed from people my age is that money is now deemed the key to happiness. You may say that’s an exaggeration, but i urge you to find someone aged 13-17 and ask them, what’s your dream job, then why? I guarantee you will end up in the conversation of ‘it pays well’. Teens and young adults are desperate to become financially free, therefore once they see that, that could end up in the palm of their hands they will do anything to get there.


Following on from that it also explains why when many people see an ‘influencer’ role in their sights it then becomes an ideal prospect. Some people will even put pull focus into this from a young age, therefore, abandoning their education to focus on it full time. Due to this seeming like such an incredible role, people brush over the negatives, because in fact, I think its one of the hardest jobs in the world. 


The psychological pressure from this job is more intense than anything you’re ever been prepared for. We all know about the dangers of social media, the skyrocketing linked suicides, catfishing, cyberbullying, scamming etc. Still, because a lot of this is so new, there is so little research out there to help these influencers deal with the issues they come across. As soon as they step into that public eye, they are no longer people. So, if they’re not people, then what are they? And to be honest i don’t have an answer for that. What im trying to say is they have a voice. People will listen to them, inflict inspiration, and opinions and will be the first point of contact for people they don’t even know. The trouble is that these people are just people. They will not be able to fit society’s perceptions of everybody, but that is where it gets difficult. I could go into detail about this but it’s not the point of the essay I’m writing. I just want to make it clear that these human beings face more than we think they do, and the next time you think of putting that comment or dm, just remember to differentiate between reality and think if you heard that in the street you would just accept that no one is the same and no one will agree with everyone, so just scroll on and let it be. They are not just faces behind the for you page, they are people behind the for you page.


The other night I finally got around to watching the Bafta-winning I am Ruth, on channel 4. What an incredible production. From the emotional performances to the heart-wrenching soundtrack, it was so incredibly powerful. If you haven’t seen ‘I am Ruth’ then firstly go and watch it, but alternatively, it is a moving short series that explores a mother and daughter relationship that is then corrupted by the negative effects of social media. They touch on themes of depression, anxiety, self-harm and underaged sexual exploration, which are all effects of social media. Ruth is a concerned mother who battles with her internal conflicts and troubles in order to save her daughter. They both find their relationship deteriorating due to the pressures of social media and also even social standards. 


I wanted to mention this, as I feel such themes have tried to be recreated before in multiple forms, however, I have nothing as of yet, ever communicate it with such realism as this piece does. This is also perfect timing for my research. Studies have found that Bark, a parental social media watchdog app, saw a 25% increase in self-harm and suicide alerts among young people between the ages of 12 and 18 in 2021, and More than 43% of young teenagers and nearly 75% of teenagers were involved in conversations or situations involving self-harm or suicide. Those sentences alone from Bark, evidently prove that teens are suffering life changing effects due to social media. 


The question is then why, and how do we stop this from happening? 









Why? Are we just the ‘snowflake generation’ who takes everything to heart? Are we too sensitive? The thing is back in the day when there was no social media or messaging platforms, if you had something horrible to say, the only way to do it was to say it to someone’s face. Who’s ever heard the saying from your parents saying ‘id knock them out’ or ‘In our day we just scrapped it out?’ I don’t know if it was just a northern thing and because well if you said anything to a northerner that they didn’t agree with, they would probably lamp you, but besides the point, in those days if you were upset by a comment there would just be a fight and it would be over. So, in theory, we must all be the snowflakes, because I don’t know about you, but I think lamping someone over a small comment, is taking it very much to heart. 


The contrasting situation of our generation is that our frustrations or retaliations cannot be evidenced in the same way, one because the majority of the time we don’t know the person on the other end of the nasty dm or comment, and two because we are so conscious of our digital footprint that we are just told to ignore it and move on. However, we then end up in a situation of not being able to voice our frustrations or resolve them, it all then gets built up and our frustration comes out onto ourselves in ways of self-sabotage or it accumulates to mental health struggles, or it comes out onto those closest to us. Either way, you’re creating a negative environment for yourselves either for your surroundings or your internal state. Once that is then bottled up, it will get berried by more and more negative situations online until we eventually explode and become ‘too sensitive’.


written by jessica-chloe watson


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