Between experience and representation: Generation Z facing risk in the age of digital mediation

Abstract

This paper explores young adults' representations of behaviour in emergency situations from a pedagogical perspective, using the Crans-Montana tragedy as a threshold event for reflecting on contemporary vulnerabilities. The study aims to understand how young people interpret and deal with emergency situations, and how education can improve their ability to communicate and express situations of difficulty and distress.  Through a focus group with university students and the use of video vignettes, the study investigates the connection between risk perception, emotional regulation, and digital mediation. The findings highlight how Generation Z experiences a tension between experience and representation, where performative identity and group conformity can inhibit individual agency. The analysis rejects blaming interpretations, interpreting the fragility of the ego and the vulnerability of the masses as the result of educational contexts that neglect the emotional dimension. In conclusion, the findings highlight how prevention requires a reconfiguration of educational responsibility, oriented towards promoting safety not only through normative compliance, but as a situated experience and a practice of care.