The last few days this story has been showing up in my newsfeeds.  In it an 18-year-old teenager "defies" his parents and gets vaccinated after asking how it's done on Reddit (seriously?) with overwrought "God knows how I'm still alive."

Now this topic isn't about vaccines.  They're safe, keep your kids alive, and protect other kids in the bargain.  Get them people.  If you disagree, make your own topic.

No, this topic is about how the media sensationalizes non-stories in order to frame a story.  And this is the definition of a non-story.  We have this adult who made an adult decision.  It might cause some internal family conflict, but it's not international news.  At the age of 18 you can vote, volunteer for the army, make stupid financial decisions that will leave you in debt for years (or just go to college), get a tattoo, get a boob job and be paid to pork on camera, get married, walk out of your home telling your parents they're worthless pieces of whatever and never speak to them again, etc.

In the grand scheme of thing, getting vaccinated ranks as one of the lesser freedoms that come with reaching adulthood.  But the media want to push the vaccination story at the moment, so they elevate this non-story of an intra-family conflict and I keep getting these articles from multiple sources.  The reason they do this is because it pushes a desired narrative.  It's completely manufactured, but the goal isn't to inform their readers/viewers, it's to advocate for one side of an issue via manufactured personalization.  They can run articles from scientists all day to try and persuade, but it's easier to elevate this guy and pretend a non-story is a story in order to put a face on it.  This is just one of the ridiculous and transparent attempts at it.

It's something to keep in mind while consuming news and their little bag of tricks in how to manipulate the public.

These aren't coming from tabloids.  They're coming from so-called serious news sources of various types.

The last few days this story has been showing up in my newsfeeds.  In it an 18-year-old teenager "defies" his parents and gets vaccinated after asking how it's done on Reddit (seriously?) with overwrought "God knows how I'm still alive."

Now this topic isn't about vaccines.  They're safe, keep your kids alive, and protect other kids in the bargain.  Get them people.  If you disagree, make your own topic.

No, this topic is about how the media sensationalizes non-stories in order to frame a story.  And this is the definition of a non-story.  We have this adult who made an adult decision.  It might cause some internal family conflict, but it's not international news.  At the age of 18 you can vote, volunteer for the army, make stupid financial decisions that will leave you in debt for years (or just go to college), get a tattoo, get a boob job and be paid to pork on camera, get married, walk out of your home telling your parents they're worthless pieces of whatever and never speak to them again, etc.

In the grand scheme of thing, getting vaccinated ranks as one of the lesser freedoms that come with reaching adulthood.  But the media want to push the vaccination story at the moment, so they elevate this non-story of an intra-family conflict and I keep getting these articles from multiple sources.  The reason they do this is because it pushes a desired narrative.  It's completely manufactured, but the goal isn't to inform their readers/viewers, it's to advocate for one side of an issue via manufactured personalization.  They can run articles from scientists all day to try and persuade, but it's easier to elevate this guy and pretend a non-story is a story in order to put a face on it.  This is just one of the ridiculous and transparent attempts at it.

It's something to keep in mind while consuming news and their little bag of tricks in how to manipulate the public.