The new research of Hearts & Science for Villa Futura 2025 shows a divided Italy: from those who find a creative and regenerating refuge on the web to those who live it as an amplifier of fragility and anxiety
Loneliness has changed its face. It is no longer just the carriage of a train that starts at 7.30 in the morning, as Laura Pausini sang thirty years ago, but it is a heated screen, a feed that flows, a chat vibrates. The investigation “The solitudes between us”, commissioned by Hearts & Science for Villa Futura 2025, tells how the digital experience has become the new thermometer of social life, generating two opposing Italies: the one that chooses the connection as a source of regeneration and the one that suffers it as a weight.
Scholars have given ironic and symbolic names to these two profiles: Marco and Laura. Not for gender differences, but as a metaphor of two different ways of living digital. Marco embodies 26% of the interviewees, those who find a vital, creative environment in the network, an extension of their passions. Laura, on the other hand, represents 27%: those who perceive digital as an obligation, an anxious space that amplifies the sense of emptiness. Among them moves almost half of the sample, suspended in an ambivalent balance, without idealizing or demonizing the net.
Marco: Digital as regeneration
For Marco, the network is a place that enriches. 80% of young people between 18 and 24 years old and 64% of adults between 25 and 44 say they draw gratifying moments from online time. It is not just about entertainment: TV series, music, video game and podcasts become instruments of non -intrusive sociality. Digital communities, frequented daily by 28% of young people and 25% of adults, are perceived as authentic squares, where you can feel part of something without obligations of presence.
For this profile, the network is also a source of knowledge: 57% of adults and 45% of young people prefer to contact the Internet – and more and more often to artificial intelligence – to solve doubts, rather than ask family members or friends. The connection therefore becomes freedom: freedom of choice, of expression, of being well even alone, with the security of never being truly isolated.
Laura: the network that amplifies the void
On the contrary there is Laura, a cluster that collects those from digital receives more insecurities than benefits. Only 34% of young people and 27% of adults in this group say they find gratification in online solitude. The majority feels more alone after spending time on social media: 47% of the 18-24 year olds and 43% of the 25-44 years old admit to leaving digital sessions with a greater sense of isolation.
The difficulty lies in not being able to find a channel of belonging: 51% of the youngest and 63% of the adults of the Cluster Laura declare dissatisfaction with their digital relationships. Many would like to broaden their social network, but they do not find suitable tools. Digital thus becomes a mirror that returns fragility, a place perceived as anxious and not very welcoming. Only a minority (6-7%) feels comfortable on social media: for the most part the real comfort remains the intimate dimension, that of the houses of friends or small groups.
An Italy suspended in the middle
Between Marco and Laura there is a neutral cluster, almost half of the interviewees, who does not idealize digital but not even suffer it. For them the net is routine, a distraction, a background that sometimes keeps company and others remains irrelevant. It is the demonstration that there is no single connection model: for some it is regeneration, for others frustration, for many a simple habit.
Solitude as a social thermometer
The research highlights how satisfaction with respect to one’s social life is the decisive element. Marco feels satisfied inside and out of the net: he declares a high level of well -being in relationships and a strong affinity with the idea of ”feeling well alone”. Laura, on the other hand, expresses fragility: “I would like to have more relationships but I don’t know how to do it”, or yet “I do not always feel understanding from the people I frequent”, are the phrases that most often resonate in this cluster.
The rift is evident even when asking which renunciation would weigh more: a day without the internet or a day without human contact. Marco fears the absence of connection, Laura fears the absence of people. Two poles that tell two radically different approaches to digital life and solitude.
The spaces of sociality
The investigation also enters the merits of the places where people feel more at ease. Marco finds his daily square in digital: 37% of young people and 31% of adults say they prefer online conversations because they are less stressful than those face to face. On the contrary, Laura prefers meetings in person: 39% of young people and 42% of the adults of this cluster say they find greater authenticity and comfort.
In favorite activities, the distance is confirmed: Marco uses digital to relax (27%), have fun (20%), learn or cultivate interests. Laura does it for relaxation (38%), but also to remove problems (29%), without ever associating the regeneration or personal growth network.
The voice of the experts
“With The solitudes between us We wanted to investigate how technology changes not only relationships, but also the way people face the different experiences of solitude “explains Emanuele Giraldi, Managing Director of Hearts & Science. «There are profiles for which digital is a safe and rewarding environment, where to regenerate and express yourself, and others for which an anxiety -making space remains. The truth is that there is no single way of being connected. Digital and sociability are evolving together, and each of us interprets it based on our experience ».
And it is precisely in the choice to call the two profiles “Marco” and “Laura” that the most fascinating irony of this research is captured: the song by Laura Pausini becomes the perfect metaphor to tell how the solitude of a generation that awaited a train today has turned into that of a generation that looks for answers behind a screen.
