The Conflict Between Digital Natives and Boomers: an Analysis of Sports and Leisure Activities Through the Lens of the 'Bonita' Music Video

Abstract

Artworks have historically served as tools for conveying information about the societal context of their time, encompassing the pre-period, the period itself, and the post-period. These works, through mass communication channels, transmit their ideas to audiences. The focus of this study, the "Bonita" music video, emerges as a representation of a generation identified in the literature as digital natives, zoomers, or Generation Z. The relationship of digital natives with previous generations and their own generation is analyzed in terms of sports practices and leisure activities. This comparison is conducted using a semiotic analysis method, examining the sign-signifier-signified relationship and the contrasts depicted in the video. The findings are supported by tables illustrating these relationships and contrasts, highlighting differences in sports practices and the balance between leisure and work time across generations. Digital natives are predominantly associated with concepts such as leisure, vitality, youth, modernity, and authority, portraying themselves as active participants in entertainment. In contrast, previous generations are characterized by work time, the traditional-modern dichotomy, and experiencing entertainment facilitated by others. The study aims to demonstrate that institutions within the societal sphere cannot be independent of mass communication tools and that the dominant class, or the class poised to hold power, uses these tools to interpret the trajectory of societal life and institutional progress.