[JonChesterfield]

Definitely. Back when I was young something like half my school wanted to be a professional footballer. There was a period after that where lots of people wanted to be esports gamers. Tiktok is currently _the thing_ which has taken that spot, as far as I can tell.

I think there was a trend towards "I want to be a programmer, cos they get paid loads and have free food", but don't know whether that's still with us.

I'd blame this on a mixture of unfounded optimism and, for my generation at least, literally everyone offering the career advice of "Do what you love and it'll all work out great". Nonsense but sounded plausible at the time.