Parallel Worlds Generation

How long will the pandemic last? In March 2020, four out of ten Poles expected the crisis and related restrictions to end within three months. In January 2021, every third Pole believed that the situation would last another 2-3 years, and 17% of respondents agreed with the grim statement that the pandemic would never end. However, the third and most difficult wave of infections is now behind us. The growing number of vaccinated people and the easing of restrictions have introduced the first wave of optimism and hope that the biggest crisis is behind us. However, COVID-19 still strongly shapes our everyday lives. The pandemic organizes our lives, affects our professional situation, how and with whom we spend time, and how we feel. At stake in the game are our physical and mental health, relationships with our loved ones, friends and colleagues, and financial situation. At the same time, the challenges that individual age groups have to face are diametrically different: it is impossible to compare the situation of a mother working remotely with that of a teenager studying. That is why in this report we are looking at a selected age group: people aged 25-50, the generation of parallel worlds, functioning simultaneously in the real and virtual worlds. This is a generation for whom "digital" does not always mean "more convenient" or "better". After more than an intensive year spent in front of screens, many of us feel tired. At the same time, we are open to digital when it makes it easier to meet our needs, e.g. monitoring health or physical activity.