The article devoted to the phenomenon of ‘virtual‘ social media as a factor influencing the formation of the markers of the value palette and preferences of modern youth. The reasoning of this interest is due to the fact that it is the youth, who is a catalyst for the development of a society. The young people today are actively involved in the urban environment through the virtualization of everyday practices, through the incorporation in the colossal information stream and the virtual (...) urban communities. The aim of this study is to identify among the youth audience the role of social media in the formation of value-sense attitudes and preferences. The study methodology is based on research approach of Sheri Turkle. Through the empirical research, the authors define both the motives for the inclusion of young people in virtual communities and the direction of the content of these virtual groups. As a result, the authors come to the conclusion that the dominant force of social networking is self-assertion of a personality with an active representative example included in a variety of communities, living and acting according to the rules of these groups and receiving there social approval and support; it often leads to a break with the cultural tradition and to forming the personality of a new type. This reason determines the novelty and relevance of the research in modern conditions of development of the digital society. (shrink)

In this article, the authors study the problem of balance of trust and mistrust associated with the turbulence of modern society, redundancy, and heterogeneity of information and communication flows creating a contradictory picture of the world. Social networks are considered as one of the basic modern information resources creating previously unavailable opportunities for communication, interaction, information sharing, and commonality construction. Social networks users broadcast the experience of constructing communications in real daily life in the Internet community forming circles of ‘friends‘, (...) building a chain of weak social ties; but the problem of trusting ‘friends‘ remains not solved in global space. A survey of users of social networks, conducted as part of this study, demonstrates conflicting findings. The opinions of ‘friends‘ does not always have an impact on the degree of trusting events, information, groups, likes, and dislikes to other users. Users often trust strangers and less familiar people. The social networks demonstrates the demand for uniting ‘brige-building‘ trust. However, the trust remains extremely narrow throughout, leading to fragmentation and alienation of individuals from each other in an attempt to find their safe niche. Distrust of narrow and wide radius leads to far-reaching consequences and greater uncertainty in society, not creating the preconditions for openness and the vision of the future. (shrink)