No, young people don’t just get information on social media! The widespread image of Generation Z and Millenials immersed exclusively in the rapid and superficial flow of TikTok or Instagram reels is destined to be dismantled by data. In particular, it is enough to focus on those that emerged from the latest Generationship Observatory, now in its fourth edition and commissioned by Unipol in collaboration with Kkieen to realize that we are faced with a much more complex and nuanced panorama, in some ways even surprising.
The research, which this year focused on media consumption in Italy, in fact, reveals an unexpected thirst for quality information that pushes some young people in directions that are not at all obvious.
These results released and widely discussed at the Brand Journalism Festival which took place in Rome on November 11th, push us to look beyond the simple click count. In particular, as underlined by Fernando Vacarini, Head of Media Relations, Corporate Reputation & Digital PR of the Unipol Group and Editor-in-Chief of Changes magazine, there is a counter-trend figure that is more surprising than the others: although the printed paper is overall “completely neglected by young people” (only 12% of under 35s use it, compared to 22% of adults), 11% of those young people who read newspapers read many of them, much more, for example, than boomers.
This does not mean that young people are returning en masse to the newsstands, but that a highly motivated minority attributes to the press a higher than average value of in-depth analysis and commitment, challenging the stereotype of the occasional reader. This paradox suggests that the consumption of information by millenials and GenZ is not homogeneous: there is a minority who, despite being digital natives, deliberately seek the traditional format or in any case the depth and structure (the so-called “alphabetic mind” rather than the continuous flow “digital mind”) offered by the press.
The challenge of overload and digital anxiety
It is undeniable that the youth information ecosystem is dominated by digital. The young audience (16-35 years old) fragments their consultations across a myriad of sources, where online clearly prevails over offline as the main source of information (80% online vs 45% offline). Young people obtain information mainly on social media (46%), on television news (43%), on search engines (39%) and on online newspapers (35%).
The real change, however, lies in the way in which information is consumed. If for adults (36-74 years old) the active and intentional search for news in dedicated moments still prevails (70% of adults obtain information in this way), for young people a model of passive exposure to a continuous flow of information has established itself, received mainly through smartphones, social media and chats. This pattern is particularly marked among the very young (16-22 years).
Despite this digital bombardment, the prevalent mode of use is still reading articles (44% of the total young people), even if very young people (16-22 years old) get more information by watching videos than by reading. Young people dedicate more time to information on average than adults: around 1.81 hours a day, compared to 1.55 hours for adults
The quality compass: the antidote to conspiracy theory
The constant flow of news and the proliferation of sources has generated deep mistrust. The quality of information in the country is rated more negatively than positively, with an average of 5.6 out of 10, for both young people and adults.
Young people are tired and feel the symptoms of this information overload (cognitive overload, anxiety, difficulty distinguishing important news). Furthermore, they fear the consequences of the sensationalism of large newspapers and the impact of algorithms on the formation of thought.
In this scenario of crisis of trust, young people adopt self-defense strategies and, above all, they rely on the traditional compass of quality, starting from the choice of sources which must be perceived as reliable, authoritative and accurate. But also independent from political and economic power, without sensationalism or clickbait.
These criteria demonstrate how, despite the massive use of social media, young people do not accept superficiality and do not consider popularity or virality as criteria for trust. Social media, in fact, are, paradoxically, the most criticized source, perceived as unreliable, generators of fake news and vectors of incompetence.
The challenge of digital risks and the antidote of competence
Despite the search for authoritative sources, most young people are not culturally equipped to deal with the ongoing information “metamorphosis”. For example, only a minority knows exactly what “Deep Fakes” are (content generated by AI for manipulation) or phenomena such as “information bubbles” (filter bubbling) and “echo chambers”.
The greatest risk perceived by young people is not totally false news, but news that is not completely false but misleading. However, as Fernando Vacarini recalled, the real threat is not only fake news but ignorance of the content, which fuels conspiracy theories.
The conclusion is clear: the only effective antidote is quality. Although young people are hyper-connected and absorb information in a “flow,” when they seek the truth, they still look to sources that embody the ethos of traditional journalism: expertise, truth and rigor. It is not quantity, but a commitment to quality that will define the future of the information landscape.
The debate on the future of information is therefore played on the ability of professional actors, both traditional and digital, to offer content that is not only accessible and fast, but above all rigorous, verified and independent. If we do not increase the quality in every channel, we will not be able to remove the topic of the information source from the so-called ignorance.
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