Greta Thunberg in third place, then Barack Obama, on the top Baby saw: these are the names of the people in which young Italians recognize themselves, according to the first research that the new Gedi content hub, Italian Tech, launched together with the Swg research institute. The result is a surprising and partly worrying portrait. A monthly Observatory that in its first episode tries to discover the dreams, fears and values of Italians between 18 and 30 years old: the Next Gen It.
Well positioned in the ranking too life senator Liliana Segre and astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti; far behind Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, the Ferragnezes and Lady Gaga, the Pope and Cristiano Ronaldo.
But the investigation goes beyond the names, and tries to decipher the feelings of a generation on the way out of the pandemic. Young people feel theuncertainty, like everyone else, but they are more bored (plus 10 percent), distressed (plus 6), resigned (plus 4) and less confident (minus 6) than adults. They are dreamers, imprudent and supportive, but they do not feel competent, neither concrete, nor responsible nor constant: a sort of Peter Pan Syndrome, where being an adult means taking on unwanted responsibilities: only one in three would like to be more involved in politics, the others are content to be “taken into consideration”.
After this difficult year they feel grateful towards medici and, even more, towards the nurses; while they have less and less faith in politics and journalists. This is perhaps also because they feel a sense of exclusion from the future, half feel they cannot change it and 61 percent define themselves as “spectators or extras”; with few career opportunities due to lack of generational turnover (82 per cent).
Faith, traditional family and homeland are not so important, climate change, gender equality, the rights of homosexual people instead are at the fore among the most felt issues. To the point that from the investments of the NRP they expect better schools, hospitals and public administrations but also that we can “eliminate gender inequality” as if it were a matter of money and not of culture.
And the technology? For seven out of ten young people, it has a positive impact: they expect to see a self-driving car (90 percent); to follow a training course with augmented reality (86); and even eating insect or synthetic meat products (eight out of ten); while they are more skeptical about the beginning of the era of space tourism.
Seven out of ten the impact on our life is positive. With respect to the delicate issue of the relationship with a artificial intelligence highly evolved, only one in ten consider it a lethal threat to mankind. But what young people really want today, after a year of lockdowns and red regions, is to take back their freedom (more than 6 percent compared to adults).
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