Internet-communications of student youth: Aspects of network identity construction (on the example of freshmen students of St. Petersburg University of Management Technologies and Economics)

Abstract

The article presents the results of the study of some aspects of Internet communications and the constructed network identity of university freshmen as representatives of generation Z, or “digital youth”. The results of the study have shown that the majority of respondents do not make a big distinction between real and virtual self-presentation, try to adhere to socially approved images, act in the Web to a greater extent as a consumer of  content than as a creator. It was also found that the majority of the study participants pay attention to changes in the construction of their online identity over the past two years, and attribute this process to personal maturation and awareness of the dangers of the Internet. In the future, according to the authors, it seems interesting to focus further research in the field of regulatory mechanisms of behavior of digital youth on the Internet.