Authors:

Sanad Alshubbak

Date Created:

Not specified

Course Title:

Professor:

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About Paper:

For Gen Z men coming of age today, the familiar script that "college is the surest path to success" feels less certain, while social media has become a major place where ideas about work, money, and status circulate. This project asks How does social media inform Gen-Z males' career aspirations and education choices, and how does it shape perceptions of college, trades/alternative credentials, and entrepreneurship? Data collection uses a qualitatively driven mixed-methods design. I recruit U.S. men ages 18-25 primarily from two contrasting contexts (Northwestern University and Chicago's southwest suburbs), administer an online eligibility screener and pre-interview survey, and then conduct ~30 semi-structured interviews (roughly 8-12 per pathway). Interviews include a brief projective vignette exercise contrasting educational and career paths, and transcripts are analyzed using grounded theory-inspired thematic coding (iterative open coding of transcripts, clustering codes into themes through constant comparison, and refining a small set of core categories that explain how participants link social media content to pathway beliefs and decisions). Preliminary exploratory conversations used to refine recruitment and the interview protocol suggest that participants naturally 'organize "what to do after high school" around three competing pathways: four-year degree-to-employment, trades/alternative credentials, and entrepreneurship/self-employment. The study examines when and how algorithmically curated content is described as legitimizing, stigmatizing, or reshaping these pathways, alongside influences from families, schools, and local opportunity structures, including masculinity/status "scripts" about being a "real man." Findings will contribute to research on social media, education-to-work transitions, and gendered expectations of "success," with practical implications for educators and career advisors aiming to offer more realistic and credible guidance.

Source:

Northwestern University

Topics:

No topics listed

Co-authors:

Sanad Alshubbak