The youth universe and relational dynamics are constantly evolving, and testifying to this change are the results of the Valentine’s Day Observatory of the Skuola.net portal, which this year involved a sample of 2,500 girls and boys between the ages of 14 and 25. Reporting the news Tgcom24 and other news sites.
A survey that offers an important cue to reason about how Generation Zeta perceives love and relationships, with an interesting finding: while adults continue to believe in the dominance of dating apps as the main tool for getting closer to each other, young people seem to have a completely different view.
Generation Zeta’s love is born in the real world: “Schools and universities are the main places where love struck. Seventeen percent of engaged respondents met love through friends, who played the role of ‘Cupid,’ connecting the two lovers. Places where people spend their free time, however, play their part: 10%, for example, met their partner in a disco, at a party or in an amusement arcade; 9% on the street, in the square or in the gardens. Completing the geography of love places are parishes (7 percent) and those where sports are played (4 percent). Anywhere but in the digital world: just 14 percent found their current partner here adding together those (11 percent) who met their current partner online – between forums, social and gaming – and those (3 percent) with dating or dating apps.”
But not only that. “For 48 percent of young people reached by the survey, the rating given to dating apps is insufficient, as they are ‘places’ where one rarely comes across people worthy of attention. While just 27% gave a ‘sufficient’ rating, claiming that it is possible to make good acquaintances while admitting that one has to work hard. 38% of respondents even revealed that they had had a ‘bad surprise’. 30% said they were disappointed because, after a few encounters, the ‘match’ turned out to be different from what they told themselves. Forty-two percent said they experienced situations bordering on ‘catfishing’ (false identities), with the person they met appearing very different in person than in the photos uploaded on the App.” As if that were not enough, there are those who say they have been “victims of harassing attitudes or stalking. 11 percent have even feared for their safety during a live date.”
Zygmunt Bauman, with the concept of “liquid relationships,” analyzed how modern dynamics, amplified by technology, lead to more fragile, insecure and unstable bonds. Generation Zeta seems to reject this fluidity and seek more solid love affairs. The desire to return to “face-to-face” encounters could be a reaction to what contemporary sociology calls “technological alienation” or the phenomenon of disconnection that can occur when individuals feel overwhelmed by digital technologies or virtual interactions.
On several occasions, I have addressed the risks associated with manipulation, as well as the many experiences of harassment and stalking, which unfortunately are not isolated events in the digital context.
The idea of meeting in more natural situations, such as schools, universities, and leisure venues, reflects a search for safety, authenticity, and truth that is hard to find in matchmaking platforms. This underscores how necessary connections based on mutual trust, respect, and transparency are.
Generation Zeta, while living in a technological and globalized age, is demonstrating its ability to rediscover the value of genuine and sincere relationships.
Hope for the future lies precisely in the strength of these young people to seek love in environments that foster a spontaneous and natural encounter. If they can treasure their experiences, today’s young people will have the power to rethink, with new certainty, how to establish relationships that are truly meaningful, healthy and lasting.
The article Countertrend: Generation Zeta, love is born in the real world, away from dating apps comes from TheNewyorker.
