Between consumer change and new awareness: Dealing with emotions during the COVID-19 lockdown

In an increasingly globalized society, the COVID-19 pandemic has also had a significant impact on the habits of individuals, forcing them to change, sometimes radically, their mindset, their lifestyles and consumption models (Kirk and Rifkin, 2020). This phenomenon has particularly affected youth cohorts, who have had to cope with novel emotions and have been forced to carry out within the home many of the consumption activities usually performed outdoors due to constraints imposed by national governments (Cambefort, 2020). With this as a starting point, the chapter provides an overview of the results of a qualitative study aimed at analyzing changes in the consumption behavior of a sample of Italian university students from the Universities of Bologna, IULM University of Milan and University of L'Aquila (covering northern and central Italy). The study represents the second phase of a quantitative survey conducted through a self-administered questionnaire in the period October-December 2020. The six online focus groups (two per participating university) organized in November 2021 involved 46 female university students aged between 19 and 24. Deepening the results of the quantitative phase, the research highlighted: 1) the return to shared consumption within the family as a source of sociality and support for family interactions; 2) lockdown as a period for emotional reflection and identity rediscovery; 3) significant changes in attitudes towards sustainability (Perkins, Velazquez and Munguia, 2021) and cultural consumption, particularly regarding the use of digital platforms such as Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. Furthermore, a surprising aspect emerged from the focus groups, which could be described as "an overload of missed opportunities." Some students expressed a feeling of unease at not being able to use the time spent at home productively, with many explicitly voicing feelings of guilt. This unexpected feature will be further examined in the chapter to better understand the social damage of the pandemic.