It is, you aren't right here. 16 year olds with a smartphone and IG account make up a big spare of those likes/shares/whatever... The other big party is bots/fake accounts/you get the idea.. And i'm generous here, even 11year olds have the ability to move trends nowadays, i can't give numbers, only anectodal reference, but i assume that's what OP meant.

I'm in my 40s. I follow lots of popular accounts (so influencers, right?) in the cycling world.

My wife does the same in interior design.

There are lots of kids, true. But try looking at mommy-instagram and you'll see a whole other world.

True. But following is not engagement. If you average X likes per hour on say IG and your teen doppelganger also is X p/h but they're on IG 5 or 6 times as much as you. Well, I think you can see the difference.

Yeah perhaps.

But older people spend lots of money on non essential items.

Also have you seen how much time a stay at home Mom spends on social media? They'd give any teenager fair competition.

Right, i was blinded by my own experience. Excuse me.

I'm not right here? Where is that? Why do you restrict this conversation to one imagined location as if the same thing wasn't happening in multiple countries simultaneously?

I am right here in Poland and I tell you, the things you show, and the things described in the article and in the first comment in this thread, they are all consumed en masse by young and mid-age adults (especially women). Lifestyle, sports, fashion, diet, craft, yoga, coaching, ikebana, it's all on Insta and Facebook and other platforms and when you see who's commenting, it's not JUST kids. And there's way more people 20+ than the kids. I never said kids do not have influence (sic) of that kind, they do. But when someone says "if you see something odd or stupid, it's the kids", it's just completely wrong. Kids have serious purchasing and decision making power now, but still it's just a fraction.

Non-teen usage might be high, but teen usage is __much__ higher, and there are more teens. You just don't see them. Where as under-employed adults will naturally leave the house; because then can.

I see, excuse my ignorant comment. You are right, i misinterpreted the amount of non-teenager accounts.

The number of 20 - 40 y/o that have the same amount of free time (to FO on the internet) is minimal. If you're post-college and have a job you have a fraction of the internet time of a college or high school kid.

I'm not disputing the existence of such 20 - 40 y/o, just that their percentage of YT or IG usage is small compared to real kids.