When FRONTLINE correspondent Douglas Rushkoff made The Merchants of Cool back in 2001, Facebook was three years away, and teens across the country looked to MTV to tell them what was cool.

Today, “likes,” “follows” and “shares” are the arbiters of cool, and as Rushkoff reports in his follow-up film, Generation Like, the rules of the game have changed. Now consumers are also the marketers, and teens are able to create and interact with culture in ways never before possible.

But as in any game, there are still winners and losers, and the companies behind the scenes are still figuring out how to profit.

How is the game of “likes” being played today? Are all of these social interactions really worth the kind of money investors are paying? Is social media empowering teens or exploiting them? Do kids think they’re being used? Do they care? And where is the social influence industry heading?

We’ve asked correspondent Douglas Ruskoff, producer Frank Koughan and a team from Oliver Luckett’s company theAudience to join us for a live chat to answer those questions and take yours.

They’ll be joined by our guest questioner Kurt Wagner, a social media reporter for Mashable.

You can leave a question in the chat window below, and come by at 1 p.m. ET on Feb. 19 to join the live discussion.

We’d like to thank Mashable and the National Association for Media Literacy Education for partnering with us on today’s chat.

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