Post Covid generation

After more than two years, the state of emergency linked to the Covid-19 pandemic officially ended on April 1: a primarily symbolic goal, which does not mean the end of all attention and precaution, but certainly makes it clear that the evolution of the health crisis situation has led us to a point of relative control, thanks to the tools we have been able to rely on, in particular, over the last 12 months.

The history of Sars-Cov2 certainly does not end here, but the arrival of spring and summer seem to authorize in the short term, also on the basis of experience, a certain optimism for the months we have of front, even if what will really happen, shortly and then later, we will see only with direct experience.
As happens when, even simply by convention, you decide to turn the page and close a phase or a cycle, the end of the state of emergency brings with it the need for a balance of what has been. In short, the damage is counted, and among those that hopefully will not be irreparable there are certainly those related to the distance and isolation that have characterized our life in the last two years.

The consequences of the weakening of relationships have proved to be more severe especially for those who were already living in a situation of fragility: people with disabilities and their families, individuals with intellectual and relational difficulties, citizens who live on the margins of sociality. The worsening of psychic pathologies is a widely registered effect at the national level, which makes it even more difficult to take charge and the success of treatment. In recent weeks, many focus on adolescents, on boys and girls who have undergone, precisely in a complex phase, a revolution in lifestyle.

The existential precariousness, the feeling of loneliness, despite the perpetual connectivity to the world of the web, the difficulty or even the inability to interact with peers and with the world of adults, deeply questions scholars, educators and clinicians. A malaise that is not only that which results in violence, educational poverty, disinterest in oneself and others, but which is much wider and is certainly exacerbated by the difficulty in finding areas of encounter, play, relationship, where to live rules shared, learn to self-organize and to relate in presence with the world of adults, as well as that of the family.

We are told that the space of solitude that young people experience must be faced with a constant push in search of opportunities and spaces for identity growth and fulfillment, in the common awareness that this complex path must deal with the challenges facing an adult-centric society like ours.

Challenges that those who are already part of the adult world run the risk of not seeing and not perceiving. Yes, it is true: the pandemic was a watershed for everyone. Also for boys.


Stefano Caredda
NP April 2022