Future Age: Anticipation of One's Own Age among Young People in Serbia

Due to insufficient scientific treatment of the relationship that young people have with age in Serbia, research was conducted in 2024 and 2025 in Belgrade and Novi Pazar with the aim of providing an anthropological contribution to the topic. The applied approach can be considered as an attempt to empirically verify the usability of a theoretical concept known as anthropology of the future, cultural futurism, or anticipatory anthropology. Using a combined qualitative methodology, 359 respondents of different ages, genders, ethnic and religious affiliations, places of residence, and professional orientations were examined. The analysis was based on their literary works, written responses to open-ended questionnaire, and oral answers collected through semi-structured focus group interviews. The research included primary and secondary school students, as well as university students. It was expected that the entire range of attitudes towards the studied problem would be revealed in the selected sample. The focus was on the prediction and anticipation of one's own age among young people, but the research also included their general attitudes about aging, the elderly and care for the elderly. The analysis shows that respondents often have an ambivalent attitude towards old age, as well as towards old people. The attitude towards old age ranges from positive, through neutral to negative, i.e. they relate to old age both actively (preparing for it) and passively (waiting for it to come). They imagine their own old age according to several themes or discourses: ruralization, peace, tranquility, social exclusion, recapitulation, victimization, and family life. The influence of the cultural pattern and the ruling system of values ​​can be read in their answers.