Digitisation – Young Germans fear increased stress

Digitisation – Young Germans fear increased stress

Young people are fascinated by the advances in digitisation, but it has its price. Germans in particular see themselves exposed to increased stress levels.

A vast majority of young German people is worried about an increasing level of stress due the world of digitisation we are living in. That’s the result of a representative YouGov survey on behalf of the Vodafone Institute. 76 percent of German youths expected an elevated level of stress as part of their future lives – the peak value in European comparison. Young people from Great Britain see more benefits than risks instead when it comes to a digitised world.

Questioning whether digitisation is creating or harming jobs or at least changing the nature of work doesn’t reveal a homogenous answer. A minority (10 to 18 percent) in all six examined countries is expecting the digitisation to create jobs, whereas 27 to 41 percent fear a negative impact on employment. 33 to 47 percent expect a general change in how work is done in the future. Young Italians and Spaniards are most feared of job losses as a result of digitisation.

YouGov Adrian from Spain

“You can come up with projects that you wouldn’t have thought of 20 years ago – and you can realise them in just an hour.” Adrian (25) from Spain underlines positive aspects of digitisation – others are quite sceptical (Photo: Vodafone Institute)

The polling institute YouGov interviewed 6000 young Europeans on behalf of the Vodafone Institute for Society and Communications: Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the Czech Republic. Thus far it is the age-set’s most extensive consultation on the topics job market, education and digitisation. It is representative as regards parameters of age, region and sex.