The Identity of the Digital Generation of Russians: The Impact of Information and Network Resources

Author Name(s): Olga.A. Maximova, Maria. Iu. Eflova, Anastasiya A. Kulcha
Author Email: olga_max@list.ru

Abstract

The analysis of the specifics of the formation of the identity of the digital generation of Russian youth is carried out in the context of the impact on it of information and network resources. Based on the results of a comprehensive sociological research conducted using qualitative and quantitative methods, it was concluded that the majority of the young generation are carriers of mosaic identity. The ambivalent role of the Internet has been revealed, which has both positive and negative effects on the socialization of the digital generation.

Introduction

In the conditions of the information society, access to information and knowledge becomes the main of the most important factors in the formation of an individual’s identity, and information and network resources become the leading agents of socialization. These dynamic agents using the latest technologies (both in technological and humanistic aspects) affect, first of all, the values and consciousness of young people, characterized by researchers as the “digital generation” [1; 2; 3]. Often, researchers record and the fact of manipulation of the consciousness of young people through information flows in the media [4]. At the same time, in a post-industrial, informational society, the family loses the function of a leading socializing agent, which leads to the emergence of an intergenerational gap, which takes an extreme form in the form of a generational conflict or a “gap” (Generational gap) between generations [5]. In such conditions, the older generation loses the ability to influence children in the framework of family socialization, and its influence is effectively replaced by information-network resources [6]. Each channel of mass communication through specific information network technologies demonstrates, and often imposes on the audience, its own interpretation of the images and behavioural strategies of various social agents and events. As a result, the sociocultural space is structured in the course of external identification and stigmatization of social groups, the construction of virtual communities and, as a result, the formation of one’s own internal identity takes place in the process of the daily life of the digital generation. These facts determine the relevance of the researchers appeal to the analysis of the specifics of the formation of the identity of young people in the context of the impact on the process of information network resources.

Conclusion

Thus, we can assert the undoubted importance of information and network technologies in the daily practices of the modern young generation of Russians. In fact, virtual reality has become a field for constructing the everyday life of the young generation, its special characteristic that separates the digital generation from the older generations In the modern information society, including the Russian one, representatives of the digital generation are expanding the possibilities of individual alternative choice among various identification patterns in the polyvalent Internet space. In the process of forming their identity, individuals can freely “migrate” across a variety of available socio-cultural fields and arbitrarily construct their multiple personal identities based on formalized, traditional (citizenship, ethnic, professional, family, belonging, etc.) and informal ones, virtual signs

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