The afternoon begins dully with a heat that only seems tolerable because the permanent state of exception of the climate has forced us to lower our standards. It is a public holiday Friday and Catalan politics has accumulated so many years of apathy that I admit I arrive loaded with preventive pessimism at Plaça Universitat, and I sink into prejudice when I find the ANC stalls full of white hair. Then I cling to the lifeline of a group of teenagers with estelades who pass by me. They are shy, they explain to me that they have come down by train from Os de Balaguer and say they don't know much about politics. To shake them up a bit, I ask them to compare this Diada with the previous ones they have experienced, and they all agree on one point: "There are more young people than ever." As I get closer to the heart of the matter, I realize they are absolutely right: I haven't missed a single protest since 2012 and I had never seen so many young people. Although the rational part of my brain knows that the absolute number cannot be compared to that of the epic years, the impression of seeing a proportion of young people higher than that of older people completely changes the emotional color of the Diada.

Four voices separated by little more than four years –two political scientists aged 24 and 22, a 23-year-old nurse, and a 26-year-old psychologist– were teenagers when they lived through the 'Procés'. Now, in perspective, they debate it based on five photographs that they reveal during a discussion on the ARA set: the coexistence of flags, the pro-independence demonstrations of September 11th, the role of Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras, the presidency of Salvador Illa, and the legacy of former president Jordi Pujol. The journey outlines the evolution of a movement that today, nine years after October 1st, is torn between nostalgia and the search for a new narrative.

In October 2017, thousands of young people who were then between 18 and 22 years old experienced their great vital and political baptism by defending the ballot boxes in the street. Today, the "1-O Generation", born between 1995 and 1999, is reaching their thirties, has left the shelter of student life and has begun to face the harshness of labor precariousness and the serious housing crisis. But, how has their perspective evolved in this decade?

There are words that explain a generation better than many sociology treatises. “Farming aura” is one of those expressions. If a teenager tells us that someone has farmed aura, they are not talking about any spiritual energy or a mysterious property, we don't need to think that it has to do with esotericism, no. It means, more or less, that that person has done something that has made them gain presence, charisma, style, or admiration. They have scored points, ergo they have gained aura.The word farmejar (from the verb to farm or farming, in English) comes from cultivating, growing, etc., but, for young people, its meaning comes from the world of video games and means repeating a certain action to accumulate experience, resources, or points and increase value or level. From video games, it has jumped into everyday life and even real battles are taking place in parks and squares. The logic is fascinating because we too can accumulate social capital through gestures, ways of dressing, attitudes, phrases, looks, or situations that make us seem more interesting to others. Aura is no longer that intangible quality that makes a person acquire a certain magnetism, that which simply emanates from a person, and it becomes a kind of invisible marker.Pierre Bourdieu helps us understand that perhaps there is nothing as new as it seems. The French sociologist had already explained that prestige is not an individual property, but a form of symbolic capital, since something acquires value because a community recognizes it as such. Clothes, musical tastes, the way of speaking, the places we frequent, or our cultural references can function as signs of distinction. What changes now is the speed and, above all, the awareness of the mechanism.Farming aura has become a characteristic expression of the digital slang of generation alpha, also shared with generation z. It is no longer just about having style, but it is necessary to know how to produce it, exhibit it, and manage it. A look at the right moment, a soccer celebration, a way of walking, a witty response, or even knowing how to remain impassive in a ridiculous situation can generate "plus a thousand aura". In aura battles, this logic becomes explicit, because young people compete before an audience that decides who transmits more presence.

In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt warned against a society divided into two camps: those who believe in omnipotence—capable of organizing themselves to bring order to the prevailing chaos (if necessary, by force)—and those who experience the deepest helplessness.

Imagine this scene: an eighty-year-old person, a consultation, and a son or daughter. The professional looks at the companion and asks: "And how are they?" The person is there. They hear. They can speak. But the question is not directed at them. You don't need to say anything offensive to belittle someone: sometimes it's enough to talk about the person instead of talking to them.For decades we have been studying elderspeak, the excessively protective or condescending speech towards older people: simplifying language, abusing diminutives, or speaking as if the other person were not fully capable of deciding for themselves. And all "for their own good." In a paper that Howard Giles and I have just published in Frontiers in Language Sciences, we analyze this paradox: elderspeak can devalue the recipient and yet be tolerated because it comes cloaked in affection, protection, or care.But growing old doesn't come alone: although men and women can lose visibility and be infantilized, research shows that they do not age socially in the same way and that these processes begin earlier in women. Ageism does not replace sexism: it is added to it. For a good part of their lives, many women have had to fight to be heard. And one day, without really knowing when it happened, they discover that others already treat them as old. Before, they could be too young or too emotional. There was always some too much. Now age is enough: it speaks for them. Condescension then finds a well-trodden path: "Come on, slowly, so we don't fall." "I'll explain this to your daughter." "Leave it, leave it, I'll do it." In men, this infantilization can become more visible when fragility or dependence make care necessary.The problem is not helping or protecting those who need it, but how we do it and whether we confuse the need for help with an inability to decide. Or to think. And words are not condescending on their own either. For me, my grandchildren calling me avieta or aviona seems charming. It is not a word, not even a diminutive, that turns affection into condescension: it is who speaks, to whom, in what context, from what position, and with what tone.Why does age end up obscuring the person in front of us? Have we associated youth and beauty with interest, ability, and competence? We only need to look at who appears on television or who we continue to grant authority to. And here gender strikes again: why do we better tolerate the visible aging of a man than that of a woman? For him, white hair can signify experience; for her, simply, age. Wrinkles give him character; they recommend an anti-aging serum to her. Perhaps old age makes us uncomfortable because it confronts us with a reality we prefer to turn our backs on: aging reminds us that life has an end.On June 15, World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, the Generalitat focused on micro-maltreatments. Parliament is also promoting a new law focused on ageism. However, laws protect rights. And part of ageism is played out daily in words: at the doctor's, at the bakery, or around the table at a Christmas dinner. Because respecting an older person is not just speaking to them sweetly. It is continuing to speak with them as adult to adult.

The consequences of the social media business model may be catching up with Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The giant led by Mark Zuckerberg faces the first session of a trial this Tuesday that could place limits on what part of the US administration considers digital excesses. 29 US states, led by Colorado, California, New Jersey, and Kentucky, accuse the multinational of having introduced features and dynamics on its main platforms that generate addiction among children and adolescents.

What would happen if we asked a series of people what words they would use to define today's youth? The number of times words like individualistic or unmotivated would appear would stand out to the detriment of the use of other positive concepts. The resulting image would be the one that often prevails in public debate, because it is by repeating a narrative that it ends up being established as true.Now allow me to combine two ideas: the current perception of young people and the Pygmalion effect — the psychological phenomenon in which one person's expectations of another directly influence their behavior and outcomes — widely studied in the educational field. It is easy for young people to also end up believing it, not just certain adults who defend these ideas and who look at them with eyes full of prejudice. How can we afford to validate such a reductionist view of youth? We have too many open fronts to not trust young people and the skills and abilities they have to contribute to improving the society in which we live. There is a real need for young people to be involved to respond to current emergency situations. One of the most obvious, especially this summer, is the climate emergency and the urgency of a change in current lifestyles. And yet, young people are often turned away. Are we not aware of the large volume of young people committed to social movements and the values and ideals that lead them to participate in these spaces?In the case of the youth groups of the Pere Tarrés Foundation Movement, and also of the scout groups, thousands of young people dedicate their time entirely voluntarily to educating and accompanying children. And, of these thousands, there are a good number who invest their work holidays in the summer colonies, camps, or routes of the youth group. They do so because they firmly believe in the impact that the youth group leaves and they assume a commitment. We often repeat that leisure education has been and is a school for citizenship. We are referring to all the learning that children, adolescents and young people take away from the experience of living this opportunity. The monitors become role models for those they accompany. They transmit to children the importance of dedicating themselves to the transformation of their environment from everyday life, of becoming critical people open to diversity, and of developing leadership, conflict resolution or organizational skills, thus training new generations of young people with a transformative vision of society. Faced with this reality of committed young people and current global crises, we must find ways to demonstrate that, as a society, we trust our young people and recognize their contribution. Let's think about it now that we have just celebrated, on the 12th, International Youth Day. It will be by offering spaces to lead, make mistakes, learn, and care for others that we will be able to show a confidence in young people that will allow us to awaken and cultivate the commitment we speak of, and, in this way, we will be able to become a more cohesive, fairer, and more participatory society.

When 24-year-old Clàudia Ferro told her parents that she wouldn't be staying in any hotel or had booked any apartment that summer, the first question was inevitable: “And where will you stay?”. The answer summarizes a new way of understanding travel: “I will work a few hours a day and, in return, I will have a place to sleep”.

His own experience has led Hatim Azahri Akhnous, 28, to dedicate his life to transforming the reality of the most vulnerable people. A higher technician in social integration and a student of social work at the UB, in 2019 he founded the association Joves Units del Poble-Sec with the aim of generating real opportunities for young people in the neighborhood at risk of exclusion. Since last year he has been a trustee of Equitat.org (formerly Fundació Bofill) and this year he has been awarded the Princess of Girona Prize in the Social category and has participated in the VI meeting of Lafede Changing education to change the world.

The Spanish government approved this Tuesday in the Council of Ministers the most important anti-tobacco legislation since 2005. Although there is still a way to go before it is applied, the crackdown on tobacco has been received in different ways on the street.

Historically, the arrival of summer has been associated with the search for seasonal work by thousands of young people who, upon finishing their academic year, want to have their own income. The motivations are very diverse: to go on a trip with friends, to get a driving license, to indulge themselves, to save up to survive the next school year, or to partially or fully fund their studies.

Just as it happened with the summer of Barbie and Oppenheimer, when a couple of films become a mass phenomenon, one cannot resist the temptation to interpret them as a symptom of collective unease. Even more so when we talk about horror cinema: the more it hits the nail on the head in exposing a hidden malaise, the scarier the film will be and, therefore, the more successful it will be. That's why it has always been said that every horror genre is born from social unease: vampire films represent the fear that the rich will suck our resources, zombie films confront us with the impossibility of controlling the masses, haunted house stories exploit the dark side of the nuclear family, and so on. Well, with Obsession and Backrooms, two horror films made by very young directors that in recent weeks have broken all kinds of box office records and have dragged crowds of young people, whom cinema had given up for lost, to theaters, we can say that a new generation is beginning to put a face to its monsters.Although they are very different films, I think both should be read uninhibitedly as an expression of the unease that digital natives feel when relating to the real world in screen time, and that if they have been so successful among young people it is because they have managed to incorporate the anxieties of the internet into the medium of cinema. In other words, neither of the two films explicitly deals with the theme of adolescents hooked on the algorithm with the alarmist tone of a Sense ficció, but rather incorporates the anxieties into the texture of the artistic artifact, achieving that strange privilege that allows metaphors to reach places impossible for explicit language.

Sant Joan is synonymous with the start of summer, as the saying goes. It's a time for fireworks and parties that last until dawn, for coca and cava and, why not say it, also for great human towers. Because yes, speaking of human towers, the arrival of June 24th marks a turning point in the season. The calendar enters a new dimension and the groups begin to show their best cards. Valls and Tarragona will once again concentrate a good part of the attention of the human tower world in two events that, year after year, serve to gauge the state of form of the groups and begin to outline the great objectives of the summer.This year, however, the tempos have advanced. Before reaching Sant Joan, we have already seen several groups that have managed to build the basic nine-story castles and, even, some premature incursions into the extra range. All this suggests that the main formations will arrive at the end of June with more work done than in other seasons. Despite this, the festivals of Valls and Tarragona continue to maintain their specific weight within the calendar.The first great Valls duel in the Plaça del Blat

La Colla Vella and La Colla Joves will first meet on the night of June 23rd in Plaça del Blat with the traditional Completes performance, a day that preserves all the essence of the old-style human towers and usually offers the first clues about the intentions of both groups. Less than 24 hours later, the same venue will host the great Sant Joan performance, an event that year after year marks the start of the strong part of the human tower season.In Plaça del Blat, the quintessential stage for human tower rivalry, Colla Vella and Colla Joves arrive with important aspirations. The 'rosats' have had a convincing start to the season and have progressively broadened their range of constructions. The work done with the basic nine-level towers allows them to start looking towards other objectives and face Sant Joan with several options open. The 5d9f continues to be one of the structures that generates the most anticipation, but rehearsals also hint at the possibility of seeing other top-difficulty constructions such as the 7d9f, the 4d9fp, or the pd8fm.The situation of Joves is different, but equally promising. The reds have advanced with more caution during the first weeks of the course, consolidating pieces before making the leap to the big challenges. Now, however, the time has come to accelerate. The group from Gassó street is working with an eye on superior constructions and with the will to present themselves at Sant Joan with everything. The 2d9fm and the pd8fm appear as some of the most outstanding objectives.Tarragona's groups want to bring premieres for Saint John

In Tarragona, the festival also arrives loaded with attractions. The Colla Jove is the one that currently presents the most solid credentials. The lilacs have completed a very consistent start to the season and recently achieved the earliest magical triplet in their history. With the basic castles of nine fully consolidated and the pd7f already debuted, all eyes are now on the 2d9fm. If the rehearsals in the coming hours support it, those from Cós del Bou could become the first group of the year to debut this construction.

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A recent report published in the United States (RAND foundation) states that the use of artificial intelligence chatbots for mental health advice among adolescents and young adults has increased by more than 40% in the last year, and that almost 1 in 5 report having used AI tools for support. 19.2% of young people between 12 and 21 years old said they had used AI chatbots (Gemini, ChatGPT, Meta AI, or Character.AI) for help or advice when they felt angry, nervous, sad, or stressed.

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The shift of youth towards conservative positions, especially among boys, often leaves another reality out of focus: the primary political option among young people, both in elections and in other instances of political participation, is abstention. In the 2024 European elections, only 2 out of 10 people under 24 exercised their right to vote. According to the Centre for Opinion Studies, the youngest age groups are the most abstentionist (less than half claim to be sure they would vote) and it is also the age group that is least informed about politics.

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Young people and migrants are particularly suffering from the housing crisis in Catalonia, as in many other European regions. These two groups are an important part of the low-income population, who are the ones who suffer the most from this problem.

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It is undeniable that the Catalan and Spanish economies are growing. On a macroeconomic level, the trend in gross domestic product (GDP) is positive, especially when compared to neighboring eurozone countries. Not even the war in Iran, which has had less impact than expected, has pushed these economies down from their leading positions in terms of growth.

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Lately, I've read here and there that young people today are less interested in working. In May, a special issue of El País argued that generations like mine prioritize the possibility of balancing work with free time and avoid taking on positions of responsibility that consume life time. It's true: I have people very close to me who have given up on promotions because they preferred to have weekends to rest than to earn two hundred euros more. And I think the explanation is quite reasonable: nowadays, more education does not mean more economic remuneration, which indicates that the promised meritocratic system is failing somewhere.And it would be great if meritocracy failed because there was more democratic access to resources, but that's not the case: what fails is a meritocracy, the one that holds that more dedication and more training imply more reward. However, the jobs with the highest salaries continue to be held by the same people (origin, class, even gender), as if the prize had been distributed in advance. That's why I say that a meritocracy fails: the one based on the law of maximum effort, the law of renunciation, the law of suffering. And so young people, little by little, are giving up on it: "I'd rather not," they say, as if they were Bartleby in the New York office. Up to here, I agree with the discourses that project this kind of disillusionment — even cynicism — among the youngest. However, something doesn't fit. If this is really the case, why are most of my colleagues on the verge of burnout? Why do I have friends who have applied for competitive exams as soon as they had the opportunity, as if their lives depended on it? Why does work continue to be a kind of mecca for self-realization and personal satisfaction? That there is disillusionment does not mean that there is a radical transformation around the idea of work.

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Designed for young people and brought to life by young people themselves, "Tal Qual: what interests young people" completely filled the Josep Rom auditorium at Blanquerna-URL, in Barcelona. This first debate forum, connected with the interests and concerns of students, brought together content creators, experts, and journalists to discuss gambling addiction, the consumption of journalistic content, and dating apps.

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