What students can learn about finding their influencers from the Kai Cenat incident
Students experience social media giveaways, which are when an influencer or brand gives their followers a chance to win something to grow brand engagement and awareness, nearly every day on social media. Giveaways like “Tag three people you know under this post to win an Amazon gift card” or “Follow me on all of my social media platforms to win the newest —” capture students’ attention with their exciting perks and take social media by storm.
But what happens when a big-name social media streamer organizes a giveaway event in Manhattan’s Union Square Park?
On August 5th, Kai Cenat, an influencer who Rolling Stone named one of the most influential creators of 2023, organized a giveaway event to hand out free video game consoles. Thousands of young people gathered in Manhattan’s Union Square, eager to win the newest gaming console. The result? A crowd that spilled into the streets and led to dozens of arrests, even of Kai Cenat himself – showing just how powerful social media can be when influencing young people to take action.
Dive deeper to find out more about this recent giveaway and how it is impacting students.
Who is Kai Cenat, and what really happened at his recent giveaway?
Kai Cenat is a YouTuber with 3.67 million subscribers and a Twitch streamer with 6.5 million followers. His high-energy videos make him one of the most-watched Twitch streamers. His content is versatile, with reaction videos to new music, internet challenges, parodies, video game streaming, and more.
Earlier this month, Kai invited his millions of followers, who are primarily young people, to join him at Union Square Park to be one of the lucky winners of the newest PlayStation gaming console, the PS5, in order to give back to the community. Thousands of people came out and not only ended up blocking traffic, but some people set off fireworks in the crowd, stormed a construction site, climbed onto cars, vandalized cars, and even threw objects (building materials, rocks, bottles) at one another. Kai himself was charged with first-degree rioting (felony) and inciting a riot & unlawful assembly (misdemeanor).
When addressing the situation and the events that occurred, Kai shared, “Being from New York, it has always been my dream to one day give back to the community who made me who I am,” he said, explaining why he planned the giveaway. “But after Friday, I’ve come to realize the amount of not only power but influence I have on people.”
While a majority of the attendees were peaceful, many became “unruly as the scheduled giveaway time had passed,” with sixty-five people being arrested, and half of them being minors. Mayor Eric Adams said, “It was possible that ‘outside agitators’ had attempted ‘to aggravate the situation.”
With two-thirds of American teens following social media influencers, it is more important than ever to empower and equip our students to find and follow positive influences that lead by example.
TSI’s Take
Gen Z trusts their favorite influencers. They feel close to them and can relate to them, making them extremely influential over our students’ thoughts, development, and beliefs. In fact, 44% of Gen Z has made a purchase based on a recommendation from a social influencer. Influencers with a significant online presence, such as Kai Cenat, serve as a reminder of how important it is to help our students find and follow influencers online who align with their interests while also serving as positive role models.
As an educator, here are a few tips you can share with your students this school year to set them up for success when it comes to who they follow online:
- Verify information: Before attending events similar to Kai Cenat’s or following influencer announcements, take time to verify the information you’re seeing with outside reliable sources. While joining a virtual or in-person giveaway event is appealing, especially for a new game console, take a second to make sure the event is safe, and talk to your guardians about the event beforehand.
- Evaluate the influencers you follow: On social media, you have the power to choose who you follow, engage with, and more. One way to help clean up your feed and avoid negative influencers is to unfollow accounts or people who post content that makes you feel bad or doesn’t align with who you are. Positive role models and influencers should inspire you and lift you up, not put you in a potentially dangerous situation or try to convince you to buy things.
- Online and offline alignment: Remember that our actions online can have real-world consequences, just as Kai Cenat’s in-person giveaway event did. The people you follow online can influence your actions and viewpoints, so it’s key to ensure that your online interactions align with your values and behaviors in the physical world.
In our #WinAtSocial Grade 7 Lesson, Finding positive role models among 4.9 billion people on social media and 7.8 billion worldwide, students discuss what they admire about their role models, reflect on where they’re running into bad influences, and figure out what brings the best out in them on social media. Want to run this lesson with your students? Contact us today for more information.
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The Social Institute (TSI) is the leader in empowering students by understanding students. Through #WinAtSocial, our gamified, peer-to-peer learning platform, we equip students, educators, and families to navigate their social world – in the classroom and beyond, online and offline – in healthy, high-character ways. Our unique, student-respected approach empowers and equips, rather than scares and restricts. We incorporate timely topics about social media, tech use, and current events that are impacting student well-being and learning. #WinAtSocial Lessons teach life skills for the modern day, capture student voice, and provide school leaders with actionable insights. Through these insights, students play an essential role in school efforts to support their own health, happiness, and future success as we enable high-impact teaching, meaningful family conversations, and a healthy school culture.