From posters in the room to TikTok influencers: this is how young people's idols have changed

BarcelonaIt is positive and necessary for young people to have role models to follow; it helps them build their identity, imagine different possibilities, find motivations, and know where to go. “The most important thing would be to have several role models who are human and imperfect, so they become a guide to mirror themselves in and not a pressure to imitate,” suggests Sylvie Pérez Lima, a licensed psychologist and professor at the UOC. But what are young people's idols like in the digital age? From the 60s to the 2000s, teenagers' bedrooms were transformed with posters of their young idols hung on the walls. "They were young people a little older than them whom they looked up to, and they idealized their image and identity," explains Carles Feixa, a professor of social anthropology at UPF and coordinator of theYouth Report in Spain (INJUVE 2024). In the 60s, teenagers appropriated their bedrooms for the first time and displayed their idols, especially musical ones, rock'n'roll and its evolutions. In the 70s, they were revolutionary political idols – Mao Tse Tung, Che, or Fidel Castro –, who, with the crisis at the end of the 70s, ceased to have continuity. Then, consumer idols returned with more commercial music, not so much protest, and sports idols, especially from football and tennis, who were models of success. It is from the 2000s onwards that digitalization began and more artificial idols emerged, youtubers and influencers, who would go on to occupy an even more intimate space, social networks. Lucía (15 years old) does have posters hanging in her room, a couple from one of the Spiderman movies and several from Sadie Sink (@sadiesink_), an actress from Stranger Things: “I follow her on social media and watch all the interviews she does, she's my crush”. What she watches most on TikTok and Instagram are reels of series, music and especially humor, accounts that make her laugh –“many silly things, falls and slips”–, Manu Rivas (@manurivasr) or Pablo Vera's (@pablovr11) dances, news channels and people who explain them like Javi Hoyos's (@javihoyosmartinez) gossip.

His friends, Sara (15) and Julia (16) also consume the recommendations that the Instagram and TikTok algorithms give them: “I watch a lot but I don't follow many people, I'm very into motivational phrases, reflections, and gym routines,” says Sara, who when choosing profiles, sticks with Carlota Marañón's channel (@Carlo Marañon), “because she doesn't do the typical YouTube videos of 'I'm at home and I'll tell you what I'm doing', she works hard on it, it goes beyond a personal diary”. In her top also are Anitarqp (@anitarqp) and Elena Gortari (@elenagortarii), one of Julia's favorite content creators: “I like what she does and especially the tone, it's very natural, she explains things about her life transparently, without showing herself as perfect”. Added to her list are Aitana Soriano (@aitanaasoriano) with content on beauty, cosmetics, and personal care; Fabiana Sevillano (@fabiana.sevillano), who introduces herself with the phrase “what you see is what you get”, or Claudia (@ot2025.claudiaarenas) and Olivia (@ot2025.olivia), participants in the latest edition of OT, and even though he's not much of a football fan, Pau Cubarsí (@paucubarsi), whom she loves. The three agree that they won't miss the Velada del Año, because there are many people they like: Plex (@yosoyplex), Tati (@tatianakaer), or Marta Díaz (@martaa_diiaz).

Content for girls and content for boys

The Eines Cooperative runs workshops in schools and institutes, training for families and trainers, and offers comprehensive prevention services for drugs and screens. Ester Angelats, a prevention technician in drugs and screens and a member of the cooperative, believes that with few exceptions, there are still differences between what boys and girls consume. In the workshops, girls are more interested in trends, beauty routines, fashion, or dances, and boys' content is more related to finances and body worship. A significant number of boys are interested in football, and they look up to players like Lamine Yamal or Pau Cubarsí, who are practically teenagers like them. With the rise of women's football, many girls who play sports have incorporated new role models like Alexia or Aitana Bonmatí, who are also young, and have managed to change the role of football, which until now was very masculine. What Guim (17) likes most about his idols is what they represent, the themes they address, and their worldview. He is interested in topics of politics, football, and society, and among his favorite content creators are the rappers Ill Pekeño (@pekeorc) and Ergopro (@ergopro_) for their political ideals and how they convey them, Baya Baye MGT (@bayabaye_mgt) for how they express themselves, or Santa Salut (@santa.salut) for how they communicate, "you get the feeling you're listening to the song with her".

What do they like?

When on social media you always see successful people with constant plans, it's easy to believe you're missing out on something and that your life is less interesting. "It can distort your perception of what's normal and affect your self-esteem, besides generating constant pressure to be and appear well," explains the psychologist. Surely for this reason, even if unconsciously, when following profiles, young people look for spontaneity, closer role models who share less polished content, or at least appear to. They no longer like "influencers" too much, they value authenticity. For Angelats, considering that young people are in a vital stage of searching for and constructing their identity, following different content creators allows them to have diverse role models and more than one point of view: "The problem arises when everything they see has a similar focus, they are inside an ideological bubble, they believe that everyone thinks the same and they find it difficult to be critical," she points out.

Regarding the suggested content, in the workshops they focus on what recommendations appear to each of them: “They tend to be different but similar content depending on whether they are boys or girls”. This small experiment is useful for them to understand that the algorithm chooses the content that it knows they will spend more time watching, and that whether it goes viral or not is not determined by quality. “It is important to have conscious consumption of social media, otherwise it is the content that chooses you and not you the content”, comments Angelats. There are also young people for whom being constantly exposed to impossible bodies – supposedly perfect – can affect their self-esteem. Angelats recommends making them reflect on the success model that is sold to them – being popular, traveling, having money –, and that they understand that there are many other life models. This expert assures that young people have been modifying the way they are on social networks. Five years ago they published a lot of content on walls, they showed themselves constantly, which is why in interventions in workshops they reminded them that they had to think before publishing because once the content was published they could no longer recover it and it represented them forever. On the other hand, now the walls are empty, they share stories and have several profiles –main and secondary–, to separate their digital identity, one account is their cover letter for everyone, they can have another for their best friends and another for their family.

From "forever" to "until I like it"

“I’m not much of a fan of anyone in particular nor do I usually follow the same people”, says Pau (15), even so he admits that he particularly likes Bad Bunny, “his songs and especially what he defends, culture and justice”. The content he follows is usually about music, movies, politics, and sports. Besides Bad Bunny, in his top are 31 FAM and Mushka. The anthropologist Carles Feixa explains that the idols of the 60s and 70s were for life: “You became heavy and you were it forever, ideologies were more lasting. Today they are fickle, they are idols that they don't quite believe in, they know they are temporary and momentary”. There are two types of idols, digital ones that are mainly found on social networks that appeal to teenagers like TikTok and Instagram, and others that are face-to-face, a kind of mentors, adult figures who are not parents or teachers and who accompany them without judging or infantilizing them. While the former are found without looking for them thanks to algorithms, the latter look for them but find it very difficult to find them.