Rediscovering family relations through emotional education

Abstract

In Italy, affectivity seems to become increasingly fluid and related to the use of social media: according to Censis, 90.2% of Italians between 14 and 29 years use the Internet, 86.3% have a smartphone and 85.1% have an active social account. Nonetheless, the Italian Institute of Statistics censuses, updated to 2020, show that one in three Italian families is made up of a single component. Italian adults, today, seem to be devoted to singleness: a new status quo increased by 10 percentage points compared to the early 2000s. Furthermore, singleness is often seen as a forced choice, due to the impact of scarce job opportunities and the Italian economic situation on the chances of emancipation of young people from their family of origin. This paper aims to stress the need of the recovery of symbolic and inter-relational values of Italian families, regardless of their composition, embracing an emotional and sentimental education firmly anchored to reality and competently informed by the ethics of love as a gift of self and care of others.

Keywords

• Family crisis
• Singleness
• Individualism
• Social media
• Emotional education