Internet in social reality of contemporary Russian youth: trends and risks

The paper is devoted to the empirical analysis of practices of using the Internet of young people in contemporary Russia. The uniqueness of the current generation of Russian youth is formed by the fact, that the period of its life matched with the period of rapid dissemination of the Internet and related activities in Russian society. The paper presents the results of an empirical study, which was focused on the analysis of trends and risks associated with the consequences of such a specific experience of growing up today’s young Russians. Using the results of secondary data analysis and the data of their own sociological survey, the authors formulate a conclusion, that so peculiar context of growing up of contemporary Russian youth formed a pronounced habit of constant use of the Internet among today's young Russians. The Internet has become for them not only a technical tool for finding information and communication. It transformed into some kind of habitat for many of them.