Figurative and symbolic content of social networks in the assessment of youth

Background. Modern youth spends the most of their lives in social networks. Thus, it is social networks as an information and communication space that largely shape the attitudes and values of young people, a certain virtual identity in all its manifestations, and influence the real behavior of young people in society. The purpose of the study is to consider the figurative-symbolic and cultural-traditional aspects of the influence of social networks on modern youth. Materials and methods. When implementing the tasks set, methods of scientific analysis and generalization of periodicals, statistical information on the research problem, methods of secondary analysis of various sociological surveys on the topic under study were used. The main methods of empirical research were conducted with the participation of the authors a mass questionnaire survey of school and student youth in Moscow, Penza and Saratov regions (n = 1000), a semi-formalized interview with students of Penza universities (n = 50), as well as an analysis of the content of a social network “VKontakte” which is popular among young people. Results. The study conducted by the authors gives an idea of the deep involvement of modern youth in the virtual space through the active use of various social networks. The analysis of questionnaires and interviews shows the structure of the interests of young people with a predominance of the desire to communicate and have fun, as well as the peculiarities of the influence of the content of the messengers they use on the cultural, personal and civic identification of young people. Conclusions. The results of the study indicate the need to use the potential of the figurative-symbolic and socio-cultural content of social networks as the most important condition for the formation of the state-civil identity of young people.