10585 | 10 Dec. 2025 | 09:30

.Online visibility is often just noise, which the media consciously reproduce and amplify to serve their sponsors

Victoria Georgieva, Trud  

 Online visibility is often just noise that the media intentionally reproduce and amplify in order to serve their sponsors.

   At these demonstrations, Gen Z creates the dynamics, but they organize them, they do not sustain them, they do not start the discussions, although such an impression is deliberately created.

   In the last few weeks, the mantra that floods us from the media is that Generation Z (born between the mid-90s and early 2010s) is leading the protests that are currently taking place in Bulgaria.

 This, you see, means that if the young people, those who hold the future, the most intelligent, the most capable, have taken the lead, there is no way that the demands are not fair, and the end result - easily predictable.

 But even the automatic equating of all young people with the successful ones is wrong. Unless the criteria are no longer so low that for someone to be considered successful, they have to have more activity and videos on social media, they often even impose themselves in order to create an image closer to the young people, to those for whose votes the fight is.

 Of course, traditionally, when we talk about protests, the young people are the most vocal, they don't hide from the cameras, on the contrary, they like to take pictures, to be photographed, they are often in the front rows of the protests - not only the current ones. We can say that at these demonstrations, Gen Z creates the dynamics. But we cannot say that they organize them, that they support them, that they start the discussions. Although deliberately creating such an impression, this perception is both strongly influenced by social media and deliberately continuously suggested to serve the goals of the political parties behind the protests. Here, the young people rose up, you made them angry, so radical changes will come.

 Dominance on the internet is certainly a key factor, but it is more directed and shaped by the puppeteers who want to transfer this feeling to the ground, among the protesters themselves. Online visibility is often just noise that the media consciously reproduce and amplify to serve the interests of their sponsors.

 If we take a quick look at the protesters, young people do dominate, but rather those over 25-30, as well as families.

 Organizers, leaders are mostly older, rarely anyone under 35, on the contrary, for years the same faces have dominated, shaken to the core. It is unlikely that anyone is naive enough to believe that a 20-year-old can single-handedly, with muscles and one belief, organize, coordinate and financially support any protest.

 Gen Z is rather the tool that is increasingly used by the real initiators. They are the link between the people whose faces it is not fortunate to heat up the protests and the young people who are much more easily ignited and believe in their narratives rather than compromised faces whose messages are mostly political. They are like megaphones that amplify the messages and transform them, according to the taste of the receivers, but they are rarely the authors. The colorful posters, videos, and chants are what first make an impression and truly attract more and more people, but this is just the facade. Behind it, there are well-organized structures, fueled by logistics and financial support from experienced and older figures, who are anything but naive, and certainly not innocent.

 The media intentionally exaggerates the role of Gen Z - because they need more dynamics, more noise, more visibility. And because the youth are the most suitable to serve the messages, as well as the influences that come with every protest.

 In the spotlight of the latest protests, a few popular young individuals, mainly famous on social media, have emerged, strategically placed and even promoted by certain parties and politicians. But even here there was a contradiction, or more precisely, an attempt to manipulate the audience, because one of the most reflected faces recently is a woman in her forties, who is trying to present herself as younger than she is, speaking on behalf of all young people, but deliberately not mentioning her age anywhere.

 But we don't see anything new - this is not the first time when there are mass protests and young people are pointed out as their driving force. If we turn back the clock, even to the distant 90s (later in 1997, 2013), every time their participation is heavily exposed. It takes less than 5 minutes to identify the well-known faces and parties that have organized the recent protests. They themselves do not hide and strive for their authorship to be recognized. And this does not mean that a large part of the discontent and criticisms are not objective, on the contrary - they are. It also does not mean that there is no need for protests, on the contrary - there is. It is simply a targeted and extremely false manipulation that Gen Z is leading the popular dissatisfaction. They are the noise, even the color, the online energy, but they do not hold the knife... and the money.

   It is obvious that the portrayal of Gen Z as the "engine of protests" is rather a media construction, media suggestion. Their activity and popularity on social media are strategically used by certain political circles to shape public opinion, to create the impression of mass support among the young people, which actually does not exist on the streets. The real accumulators of protest energy remain out of focus, while Gen Z becomes a convenient symbol - a tool through which attention is directed and attitudes are formed.