“Many employees are no longer mere participants in a passive system, but have become active investors and planners of their own future.” This sentence encapsulates a profound cultural shift: young people are no longer content to wait for pay-as-you-go and/or capitalization systems to ensure a decent retirement.
Today, they strive to play a prominent role in building their financial well-being and today they do through mobile applications that allow you to save and invest in assets that were previously forbidden to you.
But behind this transformation A disturbing paradox arises: Those who do not decide on a long-term investment often use these applications like digital casinos. This behavior, which consists of betting on one or more financial assets in the short term in order to achieve quick profits, is in many cases explained by gambling addiction in adolescence (pathological gambling).
Trading and cryptocurrency platforms have adopted the dynamics of video games: real-time graphics, symbolic rewards, constant notifications. All of this stimulates the same brain circuits as online betting. Instant gratification becomes the driving force of behavior and displaces the logic of long-term planning. In fact, many trading and cryptocurrency applications utilize gaming dynamics similar to those of digital casinos, reinforcing the connection between their educational level’s gambling addiction and their current investment habits.
The World Health Organization (WHO) considers adolescent gambling to be an impulse control disorder with a direct impact on mental health and well-being. In Argentina, around 12.5% of young people between the ages of 16 and 24 have participated in online betting. The pandemic was a turning point: isolation, the lack of in-person activities and unrestricted access to digital platforms created fertile ground for teenagers and young people to enter the game. Today, this behavior is being transferred to the financial sector under the guise of investments.
Centenarians are more likely to invest than previous generations they choose to do so via mobile applications and thus avoids traditional banks. However, external influencesshort-term financial trendssocial networks, peer pressure – force them to make quick decisions, often without analysis or expert advice.
The reality is that 75% of young workers look for additional income because their compensation is unsatisfactory. which usually leads them to believe high financial risks due to their gambling behavior.
For many young people without financial education, the difference is between investing and gambling In theory it is clear, but in practice it becomes diffuse. They confuse savings consistency, a long-term vision and asset diversification with tactical investments, short-term decisions, focusing on a few assets and looking for quick profits.
When tactical investing, i.e. speculation, becomes a habit, financial well-being is threatened because building wealth requires time, patience and education – three elements that clash with the culture of immediate gratification.
The truth is that the lack of financial education in schools, universities and companies makes young people vulnerable to confusing investing with betting on stocks or bonds and taking excessive risks without long-term strategies.
Social networks are amplifying the phenomenon. Financial influencers, Telegram groups, viral videos on TikTok or YouTube promote “investment trends”. The problem is that these recommendations are rarely based on in-depth analysis, as they respond to the logic of application rather than that of financial well-being.
The challenge is clear Above all, it must be cultural and educational. This is not about banning applications or demonizing digital investments, but about teaching the difference between roulette and planning.
If we want Centennials to build a solid financial future, we must act by educating, regulating and accompanying the young investor. The real bet is not on the short term, but on the sustainable well-being of life as a whole.
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