99 percent of young people in Germany are online; 27 percent even say that they are practically never offline. This emerges from the U25 study by the German Institute for Trust and Security on the Internet (DIVSI). But what is the omnipresence of the Internet doing to the young generation? According to DIVSI director Matthias Kammer, the great online euphoria of earlier years is definitely over: “Despite their fundamentally opportunity-oriented attitude towards the digital world, 14 to 24 year olds see increasing online risks and feel a latent insecurity when dealing with the Internet.” So 27 percent of those surveyed fear being “addicted to the Internet,” as the graphic shows. Almost two thirds say they often waste their time on the Internet. Almost half of the study participants would like to be online less in the future. At the same time, the vast majority cannot imagine life without the Internet and go so far as to say that the Internet makes them happy.
Keep in touch
