While reading this article, I could only think that wow, this is the result of consumerism; kids are rushing towards fame and celebrity and spending hours and hours immersed in media going through a small subset of companies. But then I thought about how it's not much different than what many of use grew up with as children: video games, Pokemon, etc. These were also forms of "media" targeted towards youth. The simultaneously cool and scary thing about these new social media platforms is that the kids are both the consumers and the creators.

There is a lot to learn in creating and editing videos, coming up with ideas, interacting with people across the web. These are things that much of us wouldn't have done plugged into Mario Bros (I love Mario Bros, but I'm just using it as an example). Sure, brands are using this form of media to get across ads, but that has been true with almost all forms of media. Maybe it's less about art than it is about "celebrity," but I find it very hard to believe it is bad for teens. Maybe we should just try to limit the time spent on them to ensure that they are getting a balanced life, because the majority of teens are going to be passive consumers.

Very interesting article though and it kind of blows my mind how fast things like this can come about.