IShowSpeed, Roblox, and the influencer dream job: The influences shaping how students view the world
For Educators · The Social Institute
From the World Cup to the classroom, the same question keeps surfacing: who’s shaping how students see the world, and do they have the skills to think it through?
- IShowSpeed’s World Cup takeover shows how students increasingly experience sports, news, and culture through the creators they follow.
- Roblox’s new Kids and Select accounts add protections, but settings alone don’t teach students how to make smart decisions online.
- New research finds social media is now the second biggest influence on students’ career aspirations.
What IShowSpeed’s World Cup takeover reveals about how students consume media, from sports to the news
A 21-year-old streamer is becoming how millions of students experience the World Cup, and a lot more than sports.
The Gist
Millions of students may experience the 2026 FIFA World Cup through the eyes of one creator: IShowSpeed. The 21-year-old streamer, whose audience exceeds 50 million subscribers, has become one of the most influential voices in sports and entertainment, with FIFA even adding his World Cup song to its official tournament album. His rise reflects a larger shift in how students consume media today. Rather than turning exclusively to traditional broadcasters like ESPN, many students are increasingly experiencing major sports, news, and cultural moments through creators they follow online.
What to Know
IShowSpeed has grown from a teenager streaming video games in his bedroom to a creator with a reach that rivals major media networks. Over the past few years, he’s expanded from gaming to livestreaming his travels around the world, introducing viewers to different countries, cultures, and experiences. As he covers the 2026 FIFA World Cup, many students won’t just be watching the tournament. They’ll be experiencing it through his streams, reactions, and commentary. WIRED even described him as “Gen Z’s ESPN” because creators like Speed are increasingly shaping how students engage with sports, culture, and the world around them.
What may surprise educators is how Speed describes his responsibility to that audience. Rather than focusing on fame or follower counts, he says his goal is to bring people “joy,” “confidence,” and “meaning.” Reflecting on his own struggles during the COVID-19 pandemic, he shared that finding positive influences in media helped him through a difficult time and shaped how he approaches his platform today.
TSI’s Take
Students don’t just follow creators because they’re entertaining. They follow people who make them feel connected, inspired, understood, or part of something bigger. As creators become a larger part of how students experience sports, news, and culture, helping students find positive influencers becomes more important than ever. Here’s how:
- Help students identify positive influences: Encourage students to think about who they follow most closely and how those people shape their attitudes, interests, and decisions.
- Discuss what makes someone worth listening to: Is it expertise? Authenticity? Positivity? Relatability? Help students reflect on the qualities they value in the people they follow.
- Explore the responsibility that comes with influence: Stories like this one offer an opportunity to discuss how creators can impact millions of people through the messages they share and the examples they set.
Help students think critically about the influencers they follow online with the #WinAtSocial Lesson, Positive role models. In this lesson, students learn not only how role models impact them, but practice recognizing qualities that inspire them to make positive choices.
Roblox just dropped ‘Kids and Select’ accounts. Are they enough to protect students online?
New account types give parents more control. Here’s why settings alone won’t keep students safe.
The Gist
Roblox, one of the most popular gaming platforms among students, is rolling out new account types that give parents greater control over what children and teens can access. The move comes after years of scrutiny around student safety, online interactions, and age-appropriate content. While stronger platform protections are a positive step, it is only part of the equation. Students still need the skills to positively navigate the content they encounter online, even within a platform designed with protections in place.
What to Know
Roblox’s new Kids and Select accounts are designed to give parents more control over the experiences available to younger users. Depending on a student’s age, parents can manage access to certain content and features, helping create a more age-appropriate experience on the platform.
The update follows ongoing concerns about student safety in online gaming spaces, where young people often interact, communicate, and spend significant amounts of time. While new protections can help reduce risk, they don’t eliminate the need for students to make good decisions online. Whether students are gaming, messaging friends, or exploring new content, they still need to know how to play to their core, recognize risky situations, and seek help when something doesn’t feel right.
TSI’s Take
Platform protections can help, but settings alone don’t teach students how to make smart decisions online. Educators can help students build the skills they need to use gaming platforms like Roblox safely and responsibly by:
- Helping students make choices they’re proud of: Encourage students to think about whether their actions online reflect who they are and how they want to treat others.
- Huddling about moments when it’s hard to stay true to yourself: Gaming platforms can create pressure to follow the crowd, take risks, or react quickly. Help students practice making decisions that align with their values.
- Encouraging students to consider what they share online carefully: Protecting their privacy doesn’t just mean making sure your privacy settings are strong. It also means being careful about what they share through chats and online communities.
Explore the #WinAtSocial Lesson, Gaming stereotypes, to huddle with students on how to navigate gaming, online communities, and time spent on screens in healthy ways.
Is social media influencer the new dream job for students?
Social media is now the #2 influence on students’ career dreams. Schools have a real opening here.
The Gist
New research spanning students in Wisconsin and Norway found that social media has become the second biggest influence on young people’s career aspirations, behind only family, friends, and teachers. As students increasingly discover careers through social media, schools have an opportunity to connect those interests to meaningful conversations about future pathways, skills, and goals. The opportunity isn’t to redirect students away from their ambitions. It’s to help them think critically about the voices and values shaping those ambitions in the first place.
What to Know
Researchers studying students in Wisconsin and Norway found that social media is playing a growing role in how students envision their futures. In surveys conducted between 2021 and 2024, more than 60% of middle and high school students said they either wanted to become social media influencers or had chosen career interests based on what they encountered online. In both countries, children as young as 7 named content creator or influencer as a dream job, often citing fame and financial success as reasons for their interest.
At the same time, the findings revealed a more nuanced picture. While becoming a content creator remained a common aspiration across age groups, many older students also expressed interest in careers like nursing, teaching, and other traditional professions. Social media wasn’t just influencing students’ perceptions of success, it was also expanding their horizons. For example, one student in a rural community shared that online videos inspired an interest in marine biology, despite living more than 1,300 miles from the nearest ocean.
The research raises an important question: if students are increasingly looking online for inspiration about their futures, who are the influencers helping shape those aspirations, and what messages are they sending?
TSI’s Take
Social media is introducing students to new possibilities for their futures. Educators can help students explore those possibilities with intention by connecting what inspires them online to the values, strengths, and aspirations that make them uniquely who they are. They can do that by:
- Opening conversations about who students look up to online and why: Help them identify what qualities they actually admire and whether those align with who they want to become.
- Connecting career conversations to students’ core values: Encourage them to ask: Does this path play to my core, or just appeal to what looks successful online?
- Bringing real context into the conversation: Huddle on what content creation actually involves and what other paths might lead to the same sense of purpose.
Help students navigate peer influence and build a sense of self that goes beyond social media with the #WinAtSocial Lesson, Online influencers and their impact, where students learn how to evaluate the authenticity of online content.
Across all three stories, the same pattern shows up: influence is everywhere students look, in the creators they stream, the platforms they play on, and the futures they picture for themselves. Stronger settings and bigger personalities aren’t going away, and they aren’t the problem. The opportunity is helping students build the skills to ask who they’re following, why, and whether those voices line up with who they want to become. That’s exactly what #WinAtSocial Lessons make easy to start. Explore our ready-to-use lessons, dig into our Seven Standards, or request a demo to see how The Social Institute brings these conversations to life in your classroom.