Digital Activity of Russia’s Youth in the New Political Reality: The Main Risks and Ways to Overcome Them

The article presents the results of a socio-political study of digital activism of Russian youth. The launch of the special military operation in Ukraine and the events that followed acted as a catalyst for the activation of various digital practices by youth groups. At a time of heightened global tensions, the extent and nature of young people’s immersion in the digital environment creates both significant risks for state and public institutions associated with the spread of destructive attitudes and controlled attempts at protest mobilization, and new opportunities determined by improved political communication and the formation of a digital dialogue with young people. The theoretical framework of the study is conditioned by the gradual transformation of the concepts of ‘digital citizenship’ which are moving towards technological and informational sovereignty. The methodology of the study is based on a combination of network and cognitive approaches. The algorithm of data collection, processing and analysis included the use of cognitive mapping of content to collect markers of youth civic and political activity, automated social media analysis of information flows, and subsequent verification of digital data through polygraph testing with elements of focused interviewing. According to the results of the study, the dominance in the information space of the flows supporting the current political course and the implemented state policy was concluded. At the same time, their visibility is limited by the significant disintegration of the audience and the lack of transformation of their activity into real practices. Critical information flows of an oppositional orientation are characterized by controllability and functionality. Such a situation creates conditions for external information pressure on vulnerable groups of young people, spreading destructive, fake and manipulative content. The study also identified structural trends in the development of information flows of youth civic engagement, the peculiarities of physiological reactions to popular political content. The basic recommendations based on the results of the work are focused on the improvement of technologies of interaction with young people by state and public institutions.

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