Newspaper Article: Are Youths Really Happy?

I do not find the article stating that youths are mainly happy accurate. Firstly, the sample size of 1268 is too small. Singapore has a population of approximately 5 million people and 1268 is only a small percentage of the population. Moreover, these 1268 people might not be randomly selected – they might be selected from a group of people who have benefited significantly from the government (for example, youths who have received education bursaries).

Some questions might also be biased. For example, the poster states that 95 per cent of the people interviewed said that they are patriotic to Singapore. However, people would usually be obliged to agree that they are patriotic to Singapore as they would normally answer survey questions in surveys in a politically correct manner.

Another question that is flawed is the number of hours people spend with their parents. The survey reflects that 40 per cent of youths spend at least 10 hours a week with their parents. However, is 10 hours really that much? 10 hours a week average out to 1 hour and 25 min every day. Is this really a lot of time?

This poster might be a source of propaganda for the government. As the elections are coming up, the government might require more support from people as the government feels that youths “are not really educated in politics and do not really understand politics”. Therefore, the government might want to give readers of the newspaper an impression that most youths are happy and satisfied with life in Singapore so that readers of the newspaper (especially the youths) would think that the government has satisfied the needs of most youth. In this way, more youth would vote for the PAP.