“I was so upset and disappointed in myself because growing up, I was told that if I get an education, if I go to college, then I’ll be successful,” Santos told Business Insider—and she’s not the first Gen Zer to complain about feeling tricked into pursuing further education.
Just last month, 27-year-old Robbie Scott similarly went viral on TikTok for insisting that Gen Z isn’t any less willing to work than generations before. Instead, he said, they are “getting angry and entitled and whiny” about the prospect of having to work hard for the rest of their adult life, only to “get nothing in return.”
It is another example of modern media mistaking anecdotes for data (see also: political nutpicking).
They take one highly personal example that seemingly aligns with their predetermined conclusion or narrative of an issue, and extrapolate to imply it is somehow emblematic of a broader trend.
I’m not sure it is, anecdotes (testimony) can be useful if true, and statistics can be employed to tell lies about data just as well. Also, media has always done this, since mass media came about.
I mean, its just fabricated - not a highly personal example, but rather no example at all. Therefore, any narrative is also false.
But it does align with predetermined notions (themes) for various audiences (like any story) I agree.
Every account I’ve seen from anybody who has been featured in a news story has said that the truth was ignored, and the media misrepresented what happened, embellished, ommitted, lied etc. Of course in this case, the lies are already told by the ‘social media personality’, to further her own career - to sell her performances, to an prospective audience but also to prospective employers. So its more of a two-way relationship.