Panorama

What makes young people tick? This was what the new Sinus Youth Study run by social researcher Dr Marc Calmbach aimed to find out. In our interview, he paints a picture of a pragmatic generation without any particularly rebellious tendencies.

Dr Calmbach, what makes young people tick nowadays?

They feel that they are under pressure on a variety of levels. They believe that a person’s value in society is increasingly measured by their performance and educational background. The labour market is becoming more precarious, with permanent jobs becoming the exception. They are thus keen not to waste any time and are often scared of embarking on the wrong path.

How do young people cope with this pressure?

In very different ways. More conservative youngsters look for stability in dependable structures – in the youth church, a scouting group or a sports club. Then there are the more modern, hedonistic young people who connect with one another via the Internet and have a high affinity with youth scenes. Young people in more precarious situations, that is to say those from socially disadvantaged backgrounds where little weight is attached to education, do not have these strong social networks – they withdraw and adopt an almost resigned and often fatalistic fundamental attitude towards education. What is more, they are given an extremely wide berth by other groups. Middle class kids in particular are plagued by serious fears about status which they often inherit from their parents. It is they who set the clearest boundaries between themselves and those of lower social status and who most often distance themselves from what one might term drop-outs or social freeloaders. That is pretty shocking and should give us as a society pause for thought.

Few young people want their parents as Facebook friends

In your study, you have identified seven different youth “lifeworlds”. According to this definition, there is no such thing as “youth” as a generalized concept. But what values do all young people share nonetheless?

Middle-class values like security, family and tradition are becoming more popular again. At the same time, young people are hedonistic and want to explore their potential. They want to work hard and play hard. They want to save, but also want to splash out on a little luxury now and again. They attempt to reconcile these various contradictions.


That’s quite a balancing act. Do none of them rebel?

Young people take a pragmatic view of the future. They try to find their place in society rather than questioning it. They realize that ideologies would only stand in their way. Unlike the 1968 generation, there are no issues which would easily mobilize them.

What significance does generational conflict have – rebelling against one’s parents?

If kids these days are taken by mum and dad to see the latest band live in concert, it becomes pretty difficult for them to set themselves apart from their parents. Instead, young and old form an alliance against the old-fashioned ways. Fortunately they still have the Internet, which many parents still don’t quite “get”. They do not understand why their children post party photos online, or why they assign themselves various pseudonyms. Social networks give young people space to be themselves, providing parent-free zones. Very few young people want to be friends with their parents on Facebook.

Youngsters behave like “mini-adults”

As well as looking at how young people spend their free time, your study also explores social engagement. Who in fact should be more worried – the church or politicians?

The church could hardly have a worse image: youngsters imagine that the only people who go to church are dreary squares who listen to bad music and have no idea about lifestyle. At the same time, young people are very keen to find some meaning in their lives, though they would rather create their own individual faith than simply swallow what they regard as the uniform religious fodder served up by the church. The church must change. Take World Youth Day a few years ago – that was a pop event that was much better able to connect with young people, both aesthetically and in a real-world sense, which is one of the reasons why it was so successful.

Politicians and political parties would appear to be similarly “unhip”...

The established parties are no longer given the benefit of the doubt. In the eyes of young people, all politicians look boring. They say that all of them wear the same crappy suits and talk about things that have nothing to do with their lives. That’s why I cannot bear it when people talk about how important it is to address the real needs of young people. Politicians often have no idea what young people really need. Young people do not want to become party members, they do not want to become politically active on a permanent basis. Parties must create programmes that give young people scope and freedom and that young people will find appealing on an emotional level. In this context we can learn from the example of the Pirate Party: its members have piercings, settle their disputes in public and communicate via the Internet – that grabs young people’s attention.

The youngsters of today will be the adults of tomorrow. How much room do they have left for utopias?

I can only hope that this pragmatism does not represent the end of the line. Young people are behaving like “mini-adults” who start getting to grips with their educational biography at an early age. They reproduce existing circumstances. Yet we see this in other European countries: if youth unemployment were to rise in Germany, young people might once again become politically active and take an interest in issues of social concern. Societies need friction in order to release creativity – the impetus for this comes from young people.