Conference Program

International research has documented systematic differences between Millennials and Generation X in time use, values, mobility patterns, and media consumption. At the same time, however there is a widespread call to avoid interpreting these divergences as fixed generational traits or treating generational categories as homogeneous and autonomous identities. On the one hand, the observed differences often reflect the interaction between cohort-specific historical conditions and life-course processes, raising the classic problem of distinguishing age, period, and cohort effects. On the other hand, generational unity is internally stratified, as both intra- and inter-cohort differences reflect unequal social origins and differentiated life trajectories.

From this perspective, this study addresses the classic age-period-cohort (APC) problem by drawing on time series data from the annual ISTAT survey "Aspects of Daily Life" (1993–2025). Adopting a cross-cohort survey design, it compares different generations observed at the same age but in different historical periods. Given the evolving structure of the survey, the comparison is restricted to a consistent core of indicators to ensure temporal coherence. At the same time, the study underscores the strategic value of the ISTAT AVQ as a key informational infrastructure for mapping generational transitions.

The core analysis focuses on individuals aged 20-34, enabling a comparison between Generation X and Millennials at an equivalent stage of early adulthood. Within this age group, the study concentrates on patterns of cultural exposure and participation in shared arenas of mediated experience, including cinema attendance, radio listening, newspaper reading, and engagement in religious and civic spaces. Descriptive findings reveal an apparent paradox: while formal education levels have reached a historic peak, making Millennials (and Gen Z) the most educated cohorts, their participation in traditional spaces of cultural mediation and shared narratives has systematically contracted. The analysis then examines whether this contraction occurs uniformly across educational levels or signals a broader reconfiguration of how cultural capital is acquired and displayed in a platform-dominated environment.

The analysis is then extended to the 15-24 age group, where the generational comparison shifts from Millennials versus Generation X to Millennials versus Generation Z. Here, the focus moves from the erosion of traditional shared spaces to the consolidation of widespread digital exposure. Rather than replicating the earlier comparison, this second step examines the technological reorganization of cultural access itself, documenting the displacement of mass-mediated synchronization by pervasive, individualized, and algorithmically structured access to information and cultural content.

Taken together, the findings suggest that generational differences in contemporary Italy are less a matter of stable identities than of shifting configurations of access to culture and public discourse. Millennials emerge as a pivotal cohort between institutional synchronization and platformized fragmentation, while Generation Z represents a further radicalization of this transformation. By integrating an APC design with a structural perspective on education and inequality, the study contributes to debates on generational stratification, digital transformation, and the changing architecture of public experience.