As we all know, we live in a world revolving around money. People will do anything they can to ensure their financial stability, and those with money control more aspects of our world than most people would like to think about. Because most people are aware of this, what one studies in school and higher education can determine the fate of the person's career path and ultimately what type of financial situation they will be in (generally speaking). During this day and age, STEM fields (or science, techology, engineering, and mathematics) boast the highest-paying jobs and most opportunities for jobs and career growth, so it's no surprise that a large amount of college students opt for these majors in their higher education.
Unfortunately, the idea that these jobs are somehow "better" or "more important" than humanities, arts, or other areas of study has caused significant anguish for those who are in those fields, myself included. Being someone who is majoring in music production and minoring in gender and women's studies, it's almost a daily occurrence during the semester to be asked "So, what kind of job do you think you're gonna get with that major?" or "Is it gonna be like super hard to find a job in that?" which aren't questions that I personally enjoy having to answer.
Music and gender studies are both already very difficult fields to find success in, without adding on people questioning your decisions at every turn. With my parents both working in IT, my grandfather having worked at NASA most of his life, and both my stepmom and grandmother being nurses, I couldn't escape the thought that my lifelong aspirations to be a musician and an artist were just simply not good enough. My parents did eventually come around to the idea after I told them that I wanted to study production and audio engineering, which are very tech-based while still fulfilling my need to spend my days surrounded by music, and my fears were appeased for a while. But as soon as I set foot on campus, all of my insecurities about what I planned to do with my life came right back.
The feeling of superiority that seems to infect many students on college campuses (in my experience, usually the pre-med or engineering students) is undeniable. Nothing is outwardly said generally, but it's just a feeling you get. The sort of sinking feeling that you get when you say your major and are met with a confused "what's that?" or an uninterested "oh..." is one that I never imagined I would feel, but is something that I am met with quite often.
From an objective standpoint (originally said by Youtuber Hank Green in this video), downplaying the importance of arts and humanities careers is not always warranted. Looking into the future of job prospects, the only jobs that robots and computers aren't becoming extremely skilled at extremely quickly are...you guessed it, jobs that involve creating things for and interacting with other people. These happen to be the jobs that any fine arts, humanities, or generally non-STEM major are studying to eventually have. Computers aren't learning how to be creative and invent new things nearly as quickly as they're adapting to doing almost every other job thrown at them, so our job security is pretty safe in that respect.
I would also argue that there is a more important reason as to why STEM majors are wrong for their disdain for arts majors. Without anyone studying art, or music, or literature, how boring do you think our world would be? We're inundated almost every second of every day with advertising, graphic design, images that stick in our brain for the rest of the day. Literature allows us to communicate our feelings and ideas complexly to others, and in a way that resonates with people in ways that no other media can. The fields may be competitive and difficult to succeed in, but if everyone just lived and made choices based on jobs and financial security, I would argue that our world wouldn't be even half as beautiful and intriguing as it is today.
So, to answer any future career questions: No, I'm not going to be an engineer or studying to get an MBA. Yes, I know that my ability to get jobs will be very difficult. No, this doesn't bother me. I love what I do, and I wouldn't give that up for money. Because although money does make life a lot easier, it's not going to make you happy in the end.
