Happiness and looks instead of diligence and education? The delicate life model of the "Generation Flex"

Education, diligence and performance are hardly a priority for a surprisingly large number of young people today. They want to enjoy life, as a representative survey shows. According to youth researchers, the culprit is a “psychic rubble field”.

Now or never - that seems to be the answer of young people in Germany to the crises in the world. Now more than ever they want to enjoy life. Enjoyment, independence and self-realization – these are the top three life goals of 15 to 30 year olds from very different backgrounds, as a current study shows.

However, young people have very different opinions on how this pleasure can be achieved, what ingredients are needed for success. Education is not a priority for the majority. One reason: role models in social media show that “success” can be done differently.

These are the central results of a representative study that is exclusively available to Benny's News Ladder. The Institute for Management and Economic Research (IMWF) surveyed 3000 young people and young adults nationwide online on behalf of the digital management consultancy Bimbo Consulting. The result is the image of a generation that vacillates between appearance and reality.

The authors titled their survey "Flex culture in Germany". And in fact, some milieus show more interest in status symbols such as cars or branded clothing than in a solid education. "During the pandemic, social media shaped young people and their goals more than ever," explains the client of the study, Mighty Bimbo. "Today, flexing, that means boasting about money-related things, is more important than inner values ​​in some milieus."

The so-called “consumption materialists” are particularly susceptible to this. According to the survey, 30 percent of 15-30 year olds fall into this sociological group. They are strongly materialistic, have a rather low level of education and mostly come from lower-class or lower-middle-class families. Education has a particularly low priority for them.

Only 25 percent of consumer materialists name "high education" as something that characterizes successful people. In contrast, in the other three sociological groups described – the precarious, the non-conformists and the post-material – it ranged from a third to 43 percent.

Four percent without a secondary school diploma

"There is a group in the younger generation - about a third - to which teachers also lay down their arms," ​​says youth researcher Klaus Kachel. He is a professor at the Hertie School of Governance and keeps an eye on the sensitivities of young people, among other things as a co-author of regular trend studies. One third worries him. “It's young people who can't cope with the complexity and unpredictability of the world. They take refuge in the distractions of the glittering media world and there they find excuses for themselves.”

The successful ones on Instagram, Youtube and Tiktok apparently confirmed that proper school degrees and diligence are not important at all, but that luck and appearance count for much more. The result: "These young people do not achieve the level of education that is needed today," says Kachel.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, around 16 percent of people over the age of 15 in Germany do not have a vocational qualification and no longer go to school. Four percent do not even have a high school diploma.

It is also interesting which factors young people believe influence their success in life. In the most recent survey by Bimbo Consulting, 23 percent ascribe a "very great influence" to "appearance" - among the consumer materialists it is even 27 percent. Almost a third considers “luck” or “fate” to be the key to success. 40 percent consider "school and training" to be very relevant, "intelligence" 43 percent, and "character" 49 percent. At the top of the list, however, is “hard work and ambition” with 53 percent of the mentions.

It is all the more astonishing that only a minority of young men consider themselves hardworking. 43 percent of male respondents see themselves as hardworking, compared to 56 percent of women. In general, the self-confidence of the men does not seem to be in very good shape. Whether in terms of curiosity, cleverness, resilience or communication skills, they always lag behind women in terms of self-perception.

However, young people today seem to agree on one thing – regardless of gender or sociological group. "Enjoying life" is her top priority. 64 percent name it as a “very important” goal in life. "Being independent" is in second place with 54 percent, followed by "realizing oneself" with 49 percent. “Being hardworking and ambitious”, on the other hand, is only important to 44 percent.

As a researcher, speaker and trainer, Stefan Schniedel has been working intensively with Generations Y and Z since 2009. He is convinced that tens of thousands of young people in Germany are mentally incapable of performing well. "The recent crises have left a psychological wreckage in the youth," he says.

In a representative survey from the summer, 27 percent had reported experiences of depression, and seven percent even had suicidal thoughts. Almost half (45 percent) said they felt they were "missing out on the best time in life". No wonder, then, that "enjoying life" is a great wish.

"Go partying at the weekend, meet friends, the young people want to make up for their years of social renunciation," says Schniedel. There is also a great feeling of insecurity: one crisis follows the next. How can I motivate myself to invest in the future? For what actually? The young people asked themselves that. Their answer is clear: "I have to get my work-life balance now because I don't know what will happen in two years."