Hollywood and the media has huge inpact on young people today, we cn see it in schools where "poor" childrens are mocked by the "rich" children for not being good enough, or they say mean things about the parents who struggle evry day to give a little to the child. where the rich parents spoiling the kid with a lot of the most hip things.
That was also the case when I was in high school and the internet didn't even exist then.
So I don't think you can blame that on media.
I blame it completely on parenting failure.
There was a rich kid in my class. He drove a car that cost as much as the cars of all our teachers combined. The guy was clearly spoiled and the values he thought were important, were obviously extremely off the mark. These are values that he got from his parents who's idea of parenting was giving the dude whatever he wanted whenever he wanted it - no matter the cost.
I'll go a step further.....
Even in this day and age, with all that internet media, kids eventually grow up with the values that they are taught by their parents. If these kids turn out to being spoiled brats who think money (and spending money) is how you evaluate your worth and life, then that is only so because the parents allowed it to go down that route.
To me, it really is that simple.
A nice of my dad ended up marrying a billionaire. She is a second generation immigrant. She comes from a very poor home. While she off course enjoys this new wealth, she is also really paranoid about how her kids will end up growing up in such wealth. So she goes out of her way to make it clear to those kids that they are not living a normal life and are very lucky. That the vast vast majority of people have to work very hard every day for their middle class income.
And honestly, it shows. If you are around those kids and don't know who their parents are, you'ld never know that they have their own private swimming pool and movie theater at their house or that their dad owns a bentley and a lamborghini. And they do live like the rich people that they are....
They live in a ginormous 6-bathroom mansion, spend their holidays in exclusive resorts in places like Dubai etc. And still, these kids are humble, respectfull and will never judge someone for being not rich. Neither will they be picking and choosing their friends based on what their parents earn.
More even.... They can't stand their rich cousins precisely because they are such spoiled rich brats. Their values and priorities are all wrong. And it's 100% the parents that are to blame for that. They failed to educate their kids properly. They failed to teach them humility and respect. The word "no" doesn't seem to be part of their vocabulary. Whatever the kids ask, they recieve.
As opposed to the kids of my dad's niece... I remember this one time where their son was mad. He wanted to have a €12 DVD of some kids movie and he couldn't have it. Not because he was punished or whatever. His mother just felt like he already had enough DVD's. That's it. The same reason why so many kids don't get whatever toy or dvd they would want to have. Not because there is not enough money, not because they were punished... but simply because you simply don't always give kids whatever they want whenever they want.
To me that sound like a very cold way of living their life.
It is.
Many rich people seem to behave this way. I think it's simple lazyness. Indeed, if your kid is crying over some toy he wants to have... it's easy to shut him up by just buying it. If you have millions of dollars, it's no big deal at all to buy some toys. It's the easy way out.
Unfortunatly, it gives extremely wrong signals to the kids. And they grow up to be total jerks.