Modern youth environment: virtual downshifting in daily activities (by a case study of the youth in the city of Kirov)

Downshifting is a phenomenon that at certain moments of social life “comes to help” the humanity. The modern world corresponds to this time. Since the present world is determined by the virtual communication, the most notable processes happen in this area. There is a growing social demand for virtual slowdown. The youth environment is keeping up with this trend, and the gradual departure from the Internet boom in the first decade of the 21st century is increasing. During this study, the authors identify the development paths for downshifting processes among the youth in future. Some of them have already been implemented. This is not referred to the total withdrawal from virtual reality because young people quite reasonably believe that it will lead them to the state of the information vacuum, although they cannot imagine their life without using network communications. However, often the externally invisible refusal of these communications is becoming increasingly evident.