Or in a less twisted headline “Gen Z and Millennials are better at recognizing when a “friend” is actually a bad influence and appropriately cuts ties with them.” Why is every news outlet trying to pit every other generation against the two younger working generations. Like, sorry we can’t afford to have nice food this week or enjoy some entertainment, we’re too busy paying our bills and keeping this roof over our head to be “fun” right now. It’s so depressing; plus the whole Student Loan Debt issue, right when an olive branch gets extended, someone else comes along and yanks it back then spits in your face.
I thought the same thing, media outlets love adding fuel to a generational fight that doesn’t accurately portray the situation. I don’t know anyone that chooses their friends based off of income.
Can't say I've experienced this myself (millennial). Maybe I'm the bad influence in my friend group? I've definitely turned down going to things because I couldn't afford it. That said, when gaming at least, I tend to just buy the game for my friends as I want to play with them and don't want them to have to worry about that cost. Games are, relatively speaking, pretty cheap so I view it comparable to paying for a night out, which is often about the same cost.
The more likely explanation for your not having experienced it yourself is that the numbers cited are bordering on silly. Millennials and Gen Z make up roughly 20% each of the population of the US [1], so something like 6 million each. The “study” polled roughly 1000 people. Drawing any conclusions at that sample size is pretty spurious, and even then, the percentages that agreed with the headline are in the 20 and 30% range.
The size of the sample compared to the size of the population doesn’t really matter. What matters is how representative the sample is.
If they got a truly random sample (they didn’t), then 1000 is plenty.
Realistically, it’s probably 1000 Millennial and Gen Z Credit Karma users (already a niche group) who bothered to open an email and take a survey, which is not a realistic representation.