Is Social Media Helping You Become Rich?
Is Social Media Helping You Become a Rich?
"Who Wants to Become a Millionaire? " is one of the most popular shows released in 1999 and aired for over 17 seasons. This trivial game show was very successful. Showing how the majority of society especially Americans dream of becoming rich, reinforcing the hegemony views that "It's better to be rich." than to be middle class or poor. As stated by Author/Researcher Sellnow Marxism and hegemony are "the notion that material conditions and economic practices shape the dominant ideology about who out be and out to not be empowered". "Who Wants to be Millionaire?" is a great example of hegemony and preferred reading for when you are viewing the show all the contestants are working middle class or poor. By using these types of contestants it subconsciously instills messages that anyone who is not rich can only do so by being a trivial genius or just outright luck so that they can win a game show.
In fact according to CNBC's "Who Wants to Be a Billionaire" over 60% of Americans want to become mega-wealthy and over 44% believe that they have the resources to do so. However, the trust in the ascension narrative also known as the "Rags to riches" ideology, is not true for the wealth gap between the rich and poor tends to widen every day. In fact according to Dave Ramsey's "How Much of My Pay Check Should I Save?" it is stated that 45% of Americans have less than $1000 to spend on an emergency and are currently living from check to check. Author/Entrepreneur Dave Ramsey's philosophy is to become a millionaire by having no debt and paying everything in cash to maximize your cash flow.
Some people view Dave's content to be occluded reading stating that Dave does not pay all his investments in cash and is a hippocrate who wants the middle class to take longer to become rich so that he can take advantage of them. However, I believe that Dave's content is actually an obstructed preferred reading. For example, I believe Dave understands that most Americans want to be millionaires and are making a profit from these hegemony beliefs. Nevertheless, Dave is actually going against the "Super Structure." of keeping the rich, rich by educating the lower class on how to become millionaires.
Some people believe Author/Entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki's content is also considered an obstructed preferred reading showing his audience that being rich is better than fighting against hegemony norms by educating others to be successful. Although, I think this is Roberts's intention I believe social media influencers have misinterpreted his teaching and over-saturated the community with so much information it is almost as if Robert's content should be considered subverted opposition due to its negative consequences of widening the wealth gap wider.
One example of the intentions of Robert's teachings and emphasis on financial education can be shown in "Making a Liability an Asset". While a misunderstanding of what Robert is teaching and due to social media posts and misinformation can be seen in the video "Dave Ramsey Loses His Mind Over This Instagram Advice!" where Dave becomes extremely passionate about a caller taking bad advice from someone she believes to be an online expert.
Robert often teaches his audience to leverage debt to become a millionaire while Dave teaches to have zero debt and make all investments cash which are almost directly opposite ways to build wealth. Both Robert and Dave emphasize reaching financial freedom through education and management of money/cash flow and both of these paths are seen to be successful. Do you think that social media has helped more people become rich? If so why? Are there any posts on your social media that you saw that you believe enforce hegemony ideas or Marxism, if so may you share them and elaborate?
If this reading interests you please feel free to read these other resources that I did not use for reference but helped inspire my article and are based on related topics:
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