Cbetween the Zeta Generation and the Millennial Generation (and therefore baptized Zennial), those in their thirties have the determination to build a future that respects their vision and dreams. Which? We talk about it with Isabella Pierantoni, sociologist, founder of the network Generation Mover: in his new book, The Century of Generations (il Mulino), he argues how generational belonging helps to explain who we are, what idea we have of the world, what future we expect.
Who are thirty-year-olds: between certainty and curiosity
So: who are thirty-year-olds and what idea of the world do they have?
They are the first young people in history who, starting from adolescence, did not need adults to learn, but they are also those who have experienced two global crises that have not been seen in the West for decades: the Covid pandemic and the economic crisis of 2008. These are people who grew up in a completely different environment from what the reference adults experienced and were able to imagine for them, therefore without learned models to deal with the vulnerability of the world system. They are pragmatic: they do not believe that sacrificing everything guarantees a better tomorrow. And they are the most educated ever.
But what do thirty-year-olds want today?
We asked a sociologist and our young readers. And yet they have a clear idea of the future that awaits them, a pragmatic and concrete understanding of the problems, because crises like the climate crisis are not abstract concepts or future concerns, but already influence their lives. Plus, they have access to a global vision, a window onto the world that their parents would have never thought possible.
Zennial, generation fighting for their future
A prepared and aware generation in a desert of references. So, a generation alone in front of the events of the world?
Yes, but I add: a determined generation, which is trying to materialize the changes and evolutions that previous generations have sown, but not fully implemented. In Nepal, Gen Zeta – those born between 1995 and 2009 – acted as a political bloc against a ruling class deemed corrupt, allowing the party of thirty-five-year-old former rapper Balendra Shah to win. In Africa, the Gen Zeta Madagascar Movement sparked huge protests against the “old guard” of President Andry Rajoelina. In Iran, it was initially the girls who challenged the regime of the ayatollahs. In Italy we saw the Fridays for Future strikes. I mean: the world evolves generation by generation, and it is undeniable that today it is twenty-thirty year olds who are carrying forward the greatest revolutions of the century. After all, they are the first generation trained to imagine the future consequences of the choices made now. We must not abandon them, however: alone they will not be able to succeed in their intentions, which in any case concern all of us. I would add that this generation has very strong dimensions of fragility.
Isabella Pierantoni, sociologist, founder of the Generation Mover network: in her new book, The century of generations (the Mill).
Zennials’ dreams and goals
What allowed an entire generation to make this evolutionary leap towards the future? He writes that they don’t wait for the future to arrive: they imagine it by looking for tools and solutions to make it compatible with their dreams and goals.
I’ll give an example that is close to everyone’s mind: the way in which the eighth grade exam is approached today. These young people are the first to have learned to build bridges between knowledge, starting from an image to connect the entire school program. This is a learning approach initially implemented in the Anglo-Saxon system and then spread to others. While previous generations proceeded in watertight compartments, they educated a capacity for synthesis and overall vision which today is a structured method of interpreting reality. I would add that this is the most educated generation the world has ever known, not only because it has access to education through technology – research by Save the Children and Oxfam has measured how much education has grown in traditionally very poorly educated areas such as sub-Saharan Africa or certain regions of Asia and South America – but also because the families who could have endowed them with material means and considerable opportunities: in Europe, they are the largest generation to have ever done Erasmus. Furthermore, returning to the idea of the future, with the arrival of this generation the idea of a linear future has disappeared: for them, reality is fluid, changeable, and normality is living by planning and redesigning according to circumstances.
The century of generations by Isabela Pierantoni, the Mill264 pages, €20
Not just strength, also fragility and loneliness
However, this pragmatic worldview coexists with the profound fragility mentioned above. What are the visible signs?
Twenty-thirty year olds are fragile and alone. They are the ones who saw the first hikikomori, friends who withdrew from social life. They were always the ones who cleared the issue of mental health: they grew up in a historical phase of such and such unexpected difficulties that focusing on oneself was the way identified to stay in it with the least possible damage. They cleared dimensions such as depression, loneliness, stress, and the consequences of extreme competition, which they often read in the lives of their parents.
They have expressed the generational conflict even within the world of work, from which they have refused to inherit dogmas such as the culture of sacrifice: they have contrasted it with the search for meaning.
Aware of the future that awaits them, they do not take for granted that sacrificing everything today guarantees a better tomorrow. More extensively, they brought a new and coherent vision of work with the changes of the present. They encouraged companies to change the idea of authority and leadership, to think about dimensions such as loyalty and merit, to review the idea of what career is considered today or what time is. Many organizations are trying to change the mentality. Each generation brings a heritage of values and visions to the company and today’s real challenge is to transform the coexistence of different generations into a useful and effective resource.
Two girls relaxing. For thirty-year-olds, time is an important value and they do not intend to waste it. (Photo: taken from the “Train to Estoril” project by photographer Francesco Quarato @perimetro)
They want work on their terms
He said that they brought a new idea of time to the work. Are they challenging work organization models or are they just asking for more time for themselves?
The time factor enters into everything these young people face, because they feel that the way they use it helps them realize themselves. And so they don’t intend to spend it badly. It is a negotiating resource in any area of their life, even at work. Basically, if a thirty-year-old asks his boss for an answer, he expects him to give it to him immediately, not after a week.
Love, parenting, children: it’s not like it used to be
And love? In today that some are already calling the post-romantic era, perhaps young women are redefining the linear idea of love?
I don’t have objective elements to say this in detail, but we know that this is the first generation that doesn’t necessarily see the need to pair up when they’re young and, generally, has a less rich love life than previous generations: virtual online relationships have had their impact.
Istat data on twenty-five-twenty-nine year olds reveal that women have a lower propensity for parenthood than their peers. And, in any case, having children is no longer a necessary step for both genders to feel complete. What explanation do you give for such significant changes?
Indeed, they no longer feel it is compulsory to start a family in order to feel fulfilled. But this happens and has always happened in history every time young people have increased their level of education and have had the possibility of self-determination: an example is the Seventies. As for couples, new models are spreading: those without children are increasing, but also those who live in two separate homes.
Men and women different perspectives
And, in any case, gender differences matter: men and women inhabit the same contemporaneity with different perspectives, which in this generation seem to conflict. Are we at an epochal turning point?
The Ipsos report with King’s College London confirms what was anticipated by the Italian Institute for the Future Foundation: precisely in the 25-35 year age group we are witnessing a return to traditional gender roles on the male side. Faced with women’s determination to emancipate themselves – phenomena that undermine male identity – men cling to the models of the past for stability and security. And we are starting to see a female tendency to adapt to this vision. Having said that, twenty-thirty year olds are a heterogeneous and mobile group, where a significant part is pushing towards a future where every person is free to realize themselves away from any pressure.
The opinion of the readers
We accomplished a survey among our readers 25-35 year olds. There are 400 of them told their world.
With what words would you define your thirties
The survey aimed at women between 25 and 35 who read iO Donna magazine and the web begins with this question. Almost 400 readers responded to us and told us their world. Well, Uncertainty (49 percent) e Fear of the future (46 percent) lead with a good gap Curiosity (34 percent) ed Enthusiasm (26 percent): these are the four most voted words used to describe thirty-year-olds, whose most heartfelt concern is work and money (73 percent indicate it as very important). But a new fact emerges: what is also worrying today is the global situation (wars, politics, environment), in second place on the scale, before emotional stability.
Few but good friends
Love is a polarizing variable: “It’s an oasis of peace” (39 percent said), “It’s everything” (22 percent), while the remaining 14 define it “important but not urgent”if not really something that is difficult to pursue and a source more of uncertainty than of serenity. Friendship, when it exists (25 percent say, in fact, “I have few friends and I often feel alone”), it is a pillarbut it is understood in an intensive sense, as a search for quality: 63 percent of readers favor a few deep connections, only 7 percent have many friends around the world. And even when going out, the focus is on the security of already consolidated ties. To the question “If you receive an invitation to a party or a meeting with people you don’t know, how do you experience it?” 41 percent responded “Enthusiasm, I like socializing“, but 28 percent “I have to go so as not to disappear, but I would do without it”, 16 percent “No problem, I won’t go anyway”, the others “I really hope it is canceled so I don’t have to go”.
I’ll think about the children tomorrow
Family and children are not at the top of priorities. At the top of the life dimensions that thirty-year-olds consider very important is psychophysical well-being, followed by work and economic stability, then freedom and travel, in fourth place is life as a couple, in fifth place is family and children.
We work to achieve it
Work and money are ok. Despite the concerns, the vast majority (70 percent) live in an absolutely, very or fairly stable situation, imagine their future in Italy (68 percent) and sees work first and foremost as self-fulfillment (69 percent). Gender equality and sustainability are at the top of the scale of values: 62 percent of readers now consider them a fundamental dimension of their lives.
