The need for news about the coronavirus has fallen considerably, especially among young people. Almost half of them believe that organizations abuse the situation to improve their own image.
Young people report that they see and hear too much news about the coronavirus. Two weeks ago, 22 percent of young people looked up the corona news three times a day or more; now this is only 14 percent.
Brands with a message about the coronavirus are no longer received very well: 45 percent believe that the brands take advantage of the situation to improve their image. 39 percent still consider responding to the corona crisis in advertising to be a good thing.
The increased leisure time is mainly filled by on-demand television viewing: 53 percent of young people say they do this more than before the corona crisis, including mainly women and Gen Z*.
Unsurprisingly, social media use has also increased, again particularly for women and Gen Z. Millennials have started using Facebook more. Young people’s Facebook use has steadily declined in recent years; perhaps the corona crisis means new growth for Facebook. Instagram and YouTube have also grown in popularity.
Young people have also followed the news of a government corona app. Although this idea has received some criticism, nearly half of young people think such an app may be effective against the spread of the coronavirus. 47 percent of young people say that they consider the health of society more important than their own privacy. Forty percent would download the app.
*Gen Z
Just we understand the Millennials a bit, the following group has emerged: Generation Z. Born at the end of the last century with a telephone in their hand, this generation has had a completely different start than the people before them. They were born at a time when war and terrorism are in the news, many of them have seen their parents or other family members suffer from unemployment after the financial crisis and have modern technology seamlessly integrated into their daily lives. Being connected to the rest of the world through their mobile phone is a matter of course for them. But they are more realistic rather than idealistic, as their predecessors in Generation X were in the 1990s.
