Self-Realization and Self-Development as Understood by Young People: Based on Materials from Russian Social Media

Studying how young social media users understand and demonstrate the value of self-development allows for a better understanding of new norms and contradictions emerging among young people. The aim of the study was to identify the key forms and meanings of representing the value of self-development among Russian youth in social networks. The empirical basis of the study was a corpus of public posts by users under 35 on the topic of self-development, mainly from the VKontakte network, published between October 2024 and April 2025. Among the topics of the 369 analyzed posts related to the “Development — Self-Realization — Self-Improvement” value cluster, the predominance of two themes emerged: “Autobiographical Narrative” (50,9 %) and “Rituals and Participation” (texts in which self-realization and self-development are framed through calendar milestones and/or collective formats, 43,6 %). It was revealed that self-narratives resonate more strongly with audiences, while collective rituals are articulated through individual reports and promises. The study showed a high potential for promoting role models through the description of personal experience; the topics of various aspects of self-realization provide additional potential for the development of creative industries, as well as the development of youth policy system.

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