Two Scenarios for the Future of Youth: The Results of Mapping Groups in the Social Network Vkontakte in the City of Tomsk

Abstract

Social networks are an environment that refl ects the social practices of youth. From the situational activity of each network group, large clusters are formed which accumulate attitudes of the corresponding layer of young people. This study focuses on regional groups of the social network VKontakte in the city of Tomsk. Data collection and visualization create a methodology for mapping this information space (“community detection”) that is relevant in network analysis. The presence of two socially diff erentiating strategies of behavior among the youth of Tomsk were substantiated by the study. They feature diff erent everyday practices, values, reference groups and information sources, and self-stigmatization systems. “Low” sociocultural practices correspond to a social group that can be described as a “group without a future,” with a negative identity. The practices of another social group, aimed at obtaining higher education and building a career, diff er radically from those of the former. Its representatives are guided by foreign sources, organizations and models. Signifi cant attention in the study is given over to issues of methodology, the mapping process and the interpretation of research results.

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