Factors and conditions of the infantilization of the modern youth

The study reviews the process of the infantilization of the modern youth; in particular, it identifies the relevant factors and conditions that contribute to this process in the youth environment. The authors analyze the concept of social infantilism and consider the social, economic, spiritual, and psychological conditions of its occurrence. The main factors influencing the infantilization of young people include the disorder of the mechanisms of socialization, financial insecurity, the transformation of the value system, virtualization of life of young people, the transformation of the institution of the family, the impact of advertising, promotion of ideas and values of the consumer society. The paper presents the results of the empirical sociological research on the representation of the youth infantilism features in the media by a case study of television and Internet advertising (N = 130). It is determined that the features of infantile behavior are widely represented in modern advertising. The images of the child’s state of the person are the most popular. This state is associated with safety, serenity, avoiding problems, and irresponsibility.