Conference Program

This contribution reflects on the preliminary findings of an ongoing qualitative study investigating the relational dynamics of youth sexuality in an "onlife" context. The research involved undergraduate and postgraduate students from humanities departments in northern and southern Italy. The participants fall within the developmental stage of emerging adulthood (ages 19–29), thus encompassing the late stages of adolescence.

The study aims to explore the meanings young people attribute to dating apps and "hookup culture," examining how these phenomena influence their system of expectations regarding both physical and virtual encounters. A preliminary analysis of semi-structured interviews reveals that participants perceive dating apps (primarily Tinder and Hinge) as ambivalent environments: on one hand, they offer a venue for effectively experimenting with affectivity and sexuality; on the other, they function as environments heavily permeated by transferential dynamics. These dynamics foster processes of idealization, particularly during the chatting phase, which is characterized by the absence of the interpretative cues typical of face-to-face interaction.

Expectations built within such relational dynamics tend to oversimplify alterity, encouraging projections that can lead to disappointment and frustration upon meeting in person. However, the use of these apps can also emerge as an informal educational space for exercising choice, tolerance of boundaries, and conflict management, especially when supported by educational practices guided by the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) approach (UNESCO, 2018). This framework focuses on skills, attitudes, and values, promoting a positive vision of sexuality as a human right and a democratic means of empowerment. In this specific context, education should guide individuals toward an awareness of their own projections and the ability to navigate them.

Furthermore, the qualitative data appear to challenge the monolithic representation of Millennials and iGen as being fully identified with hookup culture. The interviewed students acknowledge the prevalence of casual sex but do not view it as detached from emotional involvement, nor as the defining feature of their personal experiences.

Consequently, a general framework emerges that warns against reductionist interpretations and moralistic judgments, which risk producing a "negative Pygmalion effect" impacting the educational practices of parents, teachers, educators and pedagogists. Finally, the study hypothesizes that “existential communication” (Bertin, Contini, 2004), within the specific context of CSE, can serve as a valid tool for supporting young dating app users. In the perspective of pedagogical problematicism (Bertin, 1968), this approach fosters the integration of egocentric and heterocentric attitudes across the subjective and objective moments inherent in the dialectic of personality formation, while simultaneously valuing the complexity of contemporary experiences.