Tell Me Who Your Friends Are. The Connection between Communities and Teen Social Activity

The article describes a study indended to assess the relationship between adolescents’ participation in formal, subcultural and virtual peer communities and their manifestation of social activity in the context of a modern digital society. The empirical basis of the study consists of the data obtained during an online survey of 6,183 adolescents in the Chelyabinsk region. The survey was conducted using the “Socially-Oriented Activity” questionnaire and the author’s questionnaire specifically developed to evaluate adolescents’ inclusion in the above mentioned communities. The social activity level of 68.1% of the teenagers in the sample was assessed as average, 16.1% as high, and 15.8% as low. 52% of respondents are involved in formal communities, 81.3% participate in subcultural communities, and 89.2% are members of virtual communities. The most popular communities among teenagers proved to be entertaining (54.9%) and educational ones (40.7%), virtual, or the “gamers”, subculture (35.2%), and the formal community “Movement of the First” (30.4%). The authors draw an inference that a teenager is socially active in a certain network of communities, which he constructs independently and sees it as an opportunity to be useful to society and advance in personal development. The most socially active teenagers are those included in formal communities and the “volunteer” subculture. Adolescents who represent members of the “gamers” and “anime fans” subcultures have lower social activity than those not involved in these subcultures. In conclusion, the authors suggest areas of pedagogical support for teenagers in constructing a network of communities.