Adolescents live between the real and the digital: they inform themselves on social media, make friends online and seek physical experiences of identity.
“Today’s teenager is not a very different anthropological object from that of a century ago, what changes very quickly is the context in which adolescence develops. Adolescents are immersed in a reality in which real and digital are the same thing. Social media are no longer places of entertainment, today kids on social media inform themselves, educate themselves, look for shops and restaurants to go to”.
1 in 5 kids only have digital friends
Thus Daniele Grassucci, director and co-founder of Skuola.Net, speaking at the first “Modern Distribution Forum 2025 – Retail in the country’s economy. Markets, technology and society”, guest of the panel entitled “Digital culture and people: what future for the physical store?”. “Friendships also develop online, our research shows that one boy in five told us that he only has friends in the digital domain. Today for an Italian the best friend can be a Dutchman with whom he plays online. Their being extremely connected to the digital experience does not mean that they don’t have shopping experiences in the physical place, they simply look for something different. Gen Z makes identity purchases, an example is the labubu” concludes Grassucci.
