I mean. I don't necessarily blame them considering how glamourous it's made out to be. It's the modern equivalent of wanting to be a movie star or singer, where you have this weird wealth and status about you for what is very little work. That doesn't make it good, but I can understand the naive, childish appeal to such a situation.

I'd also wonder what "social media influencer" covers. Is it just the weirdly cult-like social media circles like Instagram "famous", or is it stuff like streamers, YouTubers, political commentators, etc, etc, etc. Because the category could be broad, and the article does say things like Youtube. I don't think it's unreasonable to understand what the draw of this is. It's about the glamourous lifestyle at the end of the day, the same thing that in years gone past would draw kids to wanting to be or at least be like various celebrities.