“Digital Citizenship” in the Estimations of Russian Youth

Abstract

The results of the Russian Youth “digital citizenship” research presented in the article are based on the All-Russian mass survey of young people, conducted in July-October 2018. The correlation analysis was based on the Fisher coefficient and allowed to identify significant relations between the estimates of network political and civil practices by the younger generation and the value orientations, civil attitudes, socio-demographic characteristics. The dominance of several profiles of these relationships was established. The first of them is reflected in the skeptical attitude of the Russian younger generation to the political functions of the global youth and the “network political absenteeism” of young people, who are focused on the values of family, friendship and travelling around the world. The second profile is a positive attitude to the network protest of the Russian youth who value material wealth; those who consider the defense of the weak and the struggle for justice to be the main ways of manifestation of citizenship, as well as representatives of the position of not realizing the problem of the spread of nationalism in the global network and condemnation of state control of Internet content. The third profile — the perception of network communication as a way to increase personal and social well-being — characterizes family-oriented young Russians and those of them for whom the preservation of their native language is the main manifestation of citizenship. The results of the study may be of interest to the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, educational institutions from the standpoint of the development and implementation of technologies for the formation of “digital citizenship” of the younger generation of Russians.