>>) but no, data is now being used as both in the plural and singular context. ;)<<
FWIIW, colloquially, that is true. But in academia, especially with folk that deal with longitudinal data, they still use it as a plural noun. As in “the dara say...”
It is one of the sticks up their reat ends....
Dara? Go forth to a typing school now! Lol, It drives me up the wall when people say “same difference”.