Dear readers, old hands like me think I know the world. But what does an old hand like me know from my youth? To be honest: When I hear young people talking on the S-Bahn, in the schoolyard or on YouTube, I often only understand train stations. Not only do they speak a different language, but they also have completely different topics than us rabbits. I don’t want to judge it, but recently I got thinking: I was teaching a group of young professionals at a journalism school and noticed during a spontaneous discussion that many of them had a pretty pessimistic view of the world. No wonder, one might think: the crises of climate and environment, security and migration, pensions and healthcare really do not offer young people good prospects for a rosy future. But as a young person, don’t you have a basic optimism implanted by nature, aren’t you bursting with strength and confidence and would like to turn the whole world around? It was similar to me back then. Today things are different, as can be seen from numerous studies. The majority of teenagers and young adults are concerned about the future, are plagued by doubts and fears – and attach great importance to what is called “work-life balance” in manager speak: Please don’t work too much, please a lot of free time, and when in doubt, personal well-being always comes first. With this attitude it could be difficult to overcome the numerous challenges of the present. Are young people, especially the much talked about Generation Z, too comfortable for this world? Can she take responsibility? And why do so many young people tend to have conservative attitudes? Is social radicalization even on the horizon? Urgent questions to which we are looking for answers. That’s why presenter Lisa Fritsch and head of politics Christoph Schwennicke discuss with youth researcher Simon Schnetzer in our podcast – and come to exciting results: It’s worth listening. Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts || Read transcript Whether young or old: I wish you a fantastic weekend. On Monday comes the dawn of Johannes Bebermeier, on Tuesday you will read from me again. And if you liked this week’s issues – whether about the Gaza war, your favorite books or the care emergency, then please recommend the daybreak to your circle of friends and acquaintances. Registration is free and very easy: please go here. Kind regards, Florian Harms Editor-in-Chief t-online E-mail: t-online-newsletter@stroeer.de Would you like to subscribe to the free daily Tagesanbruch newsletter or recommend it to others? You can do this with three clicks here.
