The path to upward mobility for young people is completely different from the previous generation.

In the past, there were three main routes for social mobility:
Studying, working, and accumulating seniority.
Trading time for opportunities, trading stability for a sense of security.

But now, young people entering society find that:
This path is getting narrower, longer, and slower.
Academic credentials no longer come with a premium, hard work goes unnoticed, and every step feels like walking into a dense fog.

As a result, a previously overlooked trend is expanding—
Social mobility is shifting from the “hard work path” to the “attention path” and the “emotional path.”

What you see in KTVs, live streaming rooms, and cosplay scenes isn’t just “playing around,”
It’s a new track for social mobility:
Whoever gets noticed, gets chosen;
Whoever provides an experience, sets the price.

This isn’t easy—it’s another form of high-pressure competition:
Some compete with expertise, some with looks, some with persona, some with personal charm.
Everyone is trying to carve out an exit from the traditional system.

What’s interesting is,
Society quietly treats those “able to capture attention”
As potential candidates for upward mobility.

The reason is simple:
Attention brings resources, resources bring traffic, traffic brings income,
And income brings social mobility.

This path is riskier, more cutthroat, and involves heavier emotional labor,
But at least it’s a road where possibilities still exist.

The previous generation’s path to upward mobility relied on factories, physical labor, work units, and diplomas;
This generation’s path relies on content, services, experiences, and emotions.

Some don’t like it, some don’t understand,
But the structure is what it is:

In this era, it’s not about “who works harder,”
But “who is more easily seen.”

The underlying logic of social mobility has already been rewritten,
It’s just that most people haven’t updated their thinking yet.