Can you actually make a living from playing video games? This is the question that many people will be trying to answer in the search for digital jobs. People keep telling us generalisms such as “the jobs of the future have not yet been created”, as if it is a magical world yet to be untapped. Yes, technology has opened up some avenues for jobs which did not exist years ago. For example bloggers and video loggers and other similar jobs could not have existed had the technology and the demand for leisure pursuits had not both been met. But it is also important to remember that as with any occupation, those at the top of the pyramid will be the top earners, by virtue of having a head start. They are the ones looked up to by those at the bottom of the pyramid, who will be keen to copy their methods in the hope of replicating their success. But this is only hope and aspiration, because they cannot recreate the market.
Digital jobs were premised as a way of doing what you love as a career, and perhaps attract people who want to go to work in their pyjamas, to the office in the kitchen. But there is so much competition for the purely digital jobs, that those that are largely digital, such as search engine optimisation, website marketing and similar jobs, do not pay well, and many are just subsistence only jobs that offer little remuneration.
It would be a good idea to teach core knowledge alongside life skills. One of the life skills that seem important is awareness of the hype in life (Work from home! Only two hours a week allows you to retire at thirty-five!) and how not to be skewed by these beliefs. We live in a world that is heavily hyped and a lot of false beliefs are marketed, such as those we have encountered earlier. Also it would be a good idea to teach children to have a wide variety of skills, such as core content knowledge, life skills (how to repair household items) and also aesthetic skills such as playing the piano so that they turn out to have more rounded experience. And certainly the idea that we can all make a living playing video games is hype by manufacturers!