The purpose of the article is to reveal the features of the social construction of reality by representatives of generation Z and to assess, on the basis of the data obtained, the evolution of the social capital of modern society. Based on generational analysis, social constructivism, and research on social capital, the authors surveyed 201 students enrolled in higher education institutions in St. Petersburg. The focus of research attention was such characteristics of respondents as independence in decision-making, the ability to maintain rational thinking and conduct critical discussion, interaction with real and virtual spaces, and the cognitive foundations of social communications. Based on the data obtained, a number of important conclusions were drawn about the loss of social capital and the weakening of social ties, on the need to differentiate between social, cultural and civil capitals, on capital compensation in a virtual environment, as well as on the influence of modern technologies on the way of building social ties. This work is a continuation of the work of a team of authors on the study of the features of Generation Z, begun in 2019.
The loss of social capital is becoming a problem in modern society, and Generation Z follows these trends with the peculiarities of their behavior and construction of reality. In general, it can be recognized that the “digitization” of social interaction reduces social capital every year.
Generation Z is currently a fairly small group. The total number of Russian “digital natives” today
is approximately 22 million. (for comparison: "millennials" outnumber "buzzers" by about 1.6 times
[
The decline in social capital, especially characteristic of the youth environment, does not apply to
the description of exclusively Russian reality. Generation Z, as noted by K. Trinko [
A 2017 report for Senator J. Michael Lee of Utah described the following indicators of declining
social capital in American society: Monthly church attendance has declined from the early 1970s to the
present - from 50% to 57% up from 42% to 44% now; in 1974, a third of Americans communicated
with their neighbors several times a week, while in 2017 only 19% do it; people spend less time on
casual conversations with colleagues, going from an average of 2.5 hours a week in the mid-1970s to
just under an hour in 2012; families are also getting smaller, and the percentage of children raised with
or without a parent has doubled, from 15% to 31% [
Perhaps the problem of social capital has a solution in its transformation - it flows from the physical
world to the virtual world. D. Hessekil notes that generation Z has a much larger global network of
connections and friends, which is worth learning from them [
The study of the social capital of generation Z is based on the structuralist-constructivist theory of
Bourdieu. The special type of reflexivity that is characteristic of Generation Z is in fact a form of cultural
capital. Cultural capital in Bourdieu's interpretation is the sum of all the cultural resources of an
individual [
An important conclusion from Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital is that cultural capital is highly
dependent on education and the introduction of innovations in society requires an impact on the
individual's habit. Bourdieu noted that cultural capital flows from habitus [
R. Putnam's concept of social capital turns out to be very close to understanding cultural capital in
Bourdieu's concept as part of a reflective habit. This theoretical analogy is especially important, since
there are different interpretations of social capital and this concept itself was introduced into scientific
circulation 6 times with different semantic shades [
In the context of the increasing virtualization of social interaction in the generation Z environment, the concept of Bourdieu's social capital is becoming extremely relevant. It demonstrates significant heuristic value for both theoretical interpretation and empirical study of the characteristics of the digital generation.
This article represents the second phase of Gen Z research. A series of studies in this area began in 2019 (DTGS-2020). This time, the focus of the study was the question of the formation of social capital in Generation Z in the context of the social construction of reality. The author's questionnaire was compiled, which made it possible to identify the characteristic features of generation Z in the process of constructing social reality. The questionnaire assumed work with a random sample of 201 first and second year students from four universities in St. Petersburg. The sample size in this study was not large due to the difficulty of accessing students in a pandemic. In addition, the project itself involved working with three different questionnaires, which ultimately increased the volume of work to 600 observations.
The research program and the questionnaire were developed taking into account the theoretical concept of social construction of reality by P. Berger and T. Luckman, which is an expression of the theoretical and methodological approach of social constructivism. Interpretation, which is characterized by the inductive logic of research, laid the foundations for the epistemological orientation of our research. Interpretation of facts is based on the concepts of analysis of social capital by P. Bourdieu, R. Putnam, as well as theories aimed at analyzing generations by N. Hove, W. Strauss, J. Palfrey, D. Stillman, D. Tapscott, M. Prensky, Tolstikova I.I., Mamina R.I. and others.
This article presents the stage of the research associated with the analysis of the features of the social
construction of reality by generation Z, therefore, as a research method, a questionnaire survey of 201
students was chosen, the choice of which met the requirements of representativeness, since it repeated
the sex and age structure of society characteristic of the age cohort of 15-19 years old. those. 49% of
men and 51% of women [
The limitations of the study were related to the specifics of the object. It is difficult to separate the features of perception and changes in reality by generation Z, associated with the specifics of this cohort, from the process of primary and secondary socialization under the influence of social institutions. We understand these limitations.
The formation of social capital is one of the keys to a successful career, which is an important goal,
especially for representatives of generation Z, who are gradually becoming equal members of society.
This process proceeds simultaneously with the development of the surrounding world by young people,
which means not just the assimilation of social values and norms, but also a conscious transformation
of reality. The studies of the first stage (2019-2020) showed that despite the dominance of
individualistic values in the profile of representatives of generation Z, he was also not free from the
collectivist values of mutual assistance and empathy, which generally reflects the specifics of Russian
culture [
The survey on the social construction of reality was presented by a series of fourteen questions reflecting the most important aspects of this social-cognitive process. So to the first question of the informational part of the questionnaire about the peculiarities of understanding the meaning of the concept of patriotism, the following answers were received. 48.8% of the respondents answered that they would find out the content of this concept on their own, either on the basis of experience or on the basis of reasoning. 25.9% of respondents (representatives of generation Z) answered that they would be guided by the opinion of experts. And only 9% of respondents would discuss this issue when meeting with friends or online. Thus, the frequency distribution of these responses allows us to conclude that generation Z predominantly seeks to penetrate the meaning of basic concepts either independently or based on the opinion of experts, which means that it is capable of making independent and balanced decisions. When asked how representatives of generation Z interpret such abstract concepts as "homeland", "religion", "humanism" 36.3% of the respondents answered that they do it with the help of concepts and formal logic; 27.9% visualize these concepts; 22.9% try to present these concepts intuitively and 11.4% represent some kind of visual and sound object. Thus, we can conclude that Generation Z has a penchant for analytical thinking, but not in the overwhelming majority. The hypothetical situation regarding the preparation of a report on the topic of comparative analysis of market and command economies assumed the identification of a tendency towards independence in the formation of a new product of knowledge. 40.3% of respondents answered that in order to prepare this material, they will read some serious books and refer to primary sources. 33.8% of respondents answered that they would limit themselves to reading articles on the Internet. 15.9% of respondents said they would read books "diagonally". 5.5% will base their talk on short retellings of books. Based on this distribution, we can conclude that, in general, students strive to gain solid knowledge for presenting a report on a new and complex topic, however, due to time constraints, they make rational decisions about preparing reports based on more accessible sources from the Internet.
The next question in the questionnaire concerned decision-making in conditions of diametrically
opposite points of view. It was formulated in relation to the acceptability of euthanasia, which was
“discussed” in classroom and online. The question was how the panelists define a valid point of view.
According to the answers of the respondents, 57.7% of them will adhere to the results obtained during
the discussion in the group, 20.4% of the respondents trust the results of the discussion with fellow
students after classes. And only 11.9% will rely on the results of online discussion. Thus, in spite of
their “phygital” characteristic [
Other 8%
Difficult to say
2%
When asked about the acceptability of the ideologies of the past for modern society, 44.8% of the respondents concluded that, in general, these ideologies are suitable, but they need significant transformation. 38.3% of respondents concluded that they are suitable only in certain cases. 9.5% came to the conclusion that they are not like. 6% of the respondents said that these ideologies are completely suitable. Thus, we can conclude that the student part of generation Z is developing critical thinking, and they are ready for a conscious transformation of the social reality surrounding them in the present and the future.
Our empirical results confirm that representatives of generation Z consider the independence of decision-making to be the most significant setting, the importance of the opinions of friends and experts depends on the importance of the subject under consideration. So, when analyzing the answers to the question of what happiness is and how to find an answer to it, it was revealed that the majority of the surveyed representatives of the phygital generation (62.2%) prefer to independently determine the main
I trust the discussion on the
Internet
12%
I trust a conversation with classmates after class 20%
I trust the discussion in the classroom 58% content of the concept of "happiness" based on their own experience and based on their reasoning. Zoomers are not afraid to follow their dreams, their ideas about "happiness" as their ideal are formed independently, since they are free from psychological clamps, prejudices and stereotypes: they do not delegate decision-making to experts (18.9%), although there is trust in expert opinion (8.5%) and least of all (5%) are inclined to discuss with friends. Independence in decision-making is clearly traced in the answers to questions about choosing a specialty for planning a career and about the possibility of using soft drugs - the absolute majority (65.7% and 78.6%, respectively) will make a decision on their own. The complexity of their perception of expert opinion can be traced in the answers to these questions. They will listen to the opinion of experts only on drug use (15.9%), and the opinion of experts on the labor market (8.0%) will be less preferable for them than the opinion of their relatives (13.4%), which indicates the importance of the role family, its values for Generation Z, as well as distrust of experts in the labor market.
I will listen to the I'll listen to the opinion of experts opinion leaders on on the labor the Internet market 1%
8% I will consult with my relatives
13% I'll consult with my acquaintances 2% Посо 2% I only consult my best friends 5%
Other 3%
I make up my mind by myself 66%
In general, this confirms the results of the empirical study of 2019-2020 that we obtained, which determined that “the predominance of individualistic attitudes (self-expression, building a career) in the profile of a typical representative of generation Z in Russia allows us to speak of the formation of“ generation I ”in Russia, but with Russian specifics, since the behavioral profile is not free from collectivism attitudes (mutual assistance - 24%, empathy - 13%), which ranked second and fourth in the value system of representatives of generation Z, respectively ”[18, p. 109]. The answer to the question about the importance of the opinions of other participants in the interaction testifies to the independence of the younger generation, and confirms the results obtained in the 2019-2020 studies, when, according to the survey, 74% of the participants took into account the opinion of others when making a decision, but put their own opinion [18, p. 109]. And, what is important, it destroys the myth about the priority of the importance of Internet communication in their lives - according to data from 2020-2021. from 1% (with people of varying degrees of closeness) to 5% (with close friends) are ready to discuss personal problems on the Internet.
Freedom of buzzers from psychological clamps, prejudices and stereotypes, the desire to find their own special new paths, as well as a lack of inclination to take risks, make them prone to organic growth and smooth transformations. Especially important for them are the values they share, including ecology, tolerance, etc. At the same time, their trust in official information has not yet been finally formed, and in answers to the question about making a decision about getting a job in a company with opposite characteristics - on the basis of official data and the opinion of acquaintances (48.8%) or a view of the problem of a representative of their generation (35.8%), - priority opinions are practically not defined. The time has come for a new generation, which itself chooses an employer, people for whom not only and not so much a brand is important as reputation, attitude to the values shared by Generation Z.
Many theories of the problems of integrating buzzers into business processes are built on one of the
most common myths about Gen Z. We are talking about the so-called "translation difficulties"
associated with the fact that zetas have a different perception of the communication process itself due
to access to unlimited communication in social networks. But the Z-generation, communicating with
everyone on an equal footing and highlighting this as a value, nevertheless understand the framework
and boundaries of the hierarchy, which is expressed, in particular, in relation to the use of slang outside
of subcultural communication, which was shown by the data of our survey. The majority of the surveyed
students (76.1%) showed an understanding of the inadmissibility of using subcultural words as a
deviation in the changing conditions of interaction on the example of using slang in a conversation with
a teacher. An understanding of the presence of linguistic cultural norms of interaction was shown by
many students (15.9%). Since it is culture that determines the participants in communication, the choice
of topics and communication strategies, the context, the way of transmitting messages, the way of
encoding and decoding, etc., understanding the regulated norms and those not recommended
demonstrates the involvement of Z representatives in the general cultural context and removes the
question of "translation difficulties". In the collision of cultural manifestations, both verbal and
nonverbal, specific features that are not recognized in intracultural communication become obvious. This
confirms the system of factors A.A. Leontiev, determining the national-cultural linguistic specifics
(factors associated with cultural tradition: permissions and prohibitions, stereotyped, reproducible acts
of communication; etiquette characteristics of universal acts of communication, role and
sociosymbolic features of communication; factors associated with the social situation and communication
functions: functional sublanguages and etiquette forms; factors related to the social situation in the
narrow sense; factors determined by the specifics of the language of a given community) [
Also of interest is the relationship to political ideology and economic policy. As the study showed,
the phygital generation is not positively oriented towards these topics, their interest is rather unstable,
which can be characterized not only by the preferred answer for 34.3%: “If there is a mood, then I can
read about something like that”, but also specific answers about interest in articles on these topics on
the Internet (26.4%) and books (18.4%); In total, 19% reported varying degrees of “no interest” or,
which means roughly the same, view them “diagonally”. This is vividly illustrated by K. Sobchak's
interview with the popular tiktoker Danya Milokhin, 19 years old, 10 million subscribers, on YouTube
on December 20, 2020. The presenter asks him the question: "Why doesn't your generation go to
rallies?" To which Danya replies: “I am not against them, but not for them either. I stand on the sidelines
and do not want to climb, I am not interested in. I do not try to understand this and do not want to fill
my brain with this unnecessary information” [
The study of students of St. Petersburg universities showed that extremism and radicalism are also
not typical for generation Z. As noted by 64.7% of respondents, "such statements are inadmissible as
much as they are inadmissible in real communication." The results of the survey confirm the
conclusions of the study “Russian “Generation Z”: Attitudes and Values” conducted by the Friedrich
Ebert Foundation: “Political apathy is widespread. Many young people (almost 60%) are not interested
at all or are very little interested in politics. At the same time, they practically do not have confidence
in the national institutions of power. Only 26% trust the government, 16% trust political parties, 25%
trust the State Duma. The level of confidence in the president of the country is relatively high (42%)”
[
The study of students showed that the level of trust in close friends is high - 66.2% are ready to share personal problems, in contrast to 18.4% of those who answered that they would not discuss it with others. At the same time, only 5% of respondents will share their personal friends on the Internet. In general, the myth about the priority or parity of the virtual world in comparison with the real world is destroyed by the answers of the surveyed students - representatives of generation Z - only 5.0% will discuss the philosophical question “what is happiness” with friends on the Internet; 5.0% - personal problems; 1% will listen to opinion leaders on the Internet about choosing a career path.
The conducted empirical research reveals positive trends in the formation of the reflective habit of generation Z. The digital generation demonstrates greater independence in the development of meanings in the process of social construction of reality. In doing so, they rely on serious literary sources and expert advice if they need to form an opinion on an important issue. Virtualization changes Gen Z communication, but does not have a significant negative impact on it. Advice from “opinion leaders” on the Internet is decisive for only a small proportion of young people.
The study of the features of the social capital of representatives of the “generation of gadgets” in the context of the increasing digitalization of social interaction was carried out on the basis of Bourdieu's theory. The main term in Bourdieu's theory that is most useful for interpreting social interaction is milleu. Since this term can be successfully used in interdisciplinary research, it has significant epistemological value for the study of the characteristics of the younger generation. The term “milleu” was used in his works by Durkheim [24, p. 233], however, Durkheim interpreted milieu from the standpoint of a systems approach, assessing the number of elements of this system and the nature of their interconnection.
From the point of view of Bourdieu, milieu is a more multifaceted term that combines both social
characteristics and the characteristics of physical space [
The multifaceted nature of the term "milieu" makes it a suitable tool for studying the characteristics of a generation of gadgets, since this generation lives in conditions of both virtual and traditional social interaction. From the point of view of Generation Z, there is no dichotomy of “real” and “virtual”, these two spheres form a single communicative space. At the same time, in order to study real-virtual social interaction, it is necessary to have some point of contact between these communication spaces, and in Bourdieu's sociology, such a point is habitus, which is understood as “systems of stable, interchangeable dispositions, structured structures predisposed to function as structuring structures, that is, as principles that generate and organize practices and representations” [25, p. 153].
One of the main features of habitus is the purposeful nature of its formation. Living in society, the individual intentionally acquires certain objective and subjective characteristics. For the generation of gadgets, digital characteristics, the image of an individual in virtual space, become the most important characteristics of habit.
Another reason why the concept of “mile” is successful for studying the features of interaction between representatives of the generation of gadgets in a virtual environment is the increasing role of cultural differentiation.
If in traditional social interaction vertical characteristics play a decisive role, that is, an individual's belonging to a certain class and stratum, his place in the hierarchical structure of inequality, then in conditions of virtual interaction, the vertical characteristics of an individual are not obvious. In the context of digital interaction, a representative of generation Z can mislead interlocutors, present himself as a richer and more status member of society. In these conditions, the horizontal characteristics of the individual begin to play a much greater role, that is, his certain cultural characteristics are not associated with inequality.
Bourdieu's sociological legacy contains the concept of social fields, which may also be useful for
studying Generation Z in the context of digital interaction. Under the social field, Bourdieu understood
a certain area of social reality, which is characterized by the predominance of a certain type of social
capital. So in the conditions of the political social field, social ties will prevail, while in the academic
field, the symbolic type of capital will become the predominant type - knowledge [
Representatives of certain groups or social classes will interact in a special way in different social fields. The difference between the virtual space lies in the fact that it forms, as it were, a single social field in which the differences between representatives of certain classes decrease. For this reason, the most important aspect of the milieu in the virtual space is the cultural capital of the individual. Since we are witnessing an increasing digitalization of social interaction in all spheres of social life, it is logical to assume that cultural capital, as part of the milieu, will play an increasingly important role in the life of every individual. For representatives of the generation of gadgets, this circumstance opens up great prospects. Although they do not have significant financial capital or high social status.
The research results give a very clear picture of the construction of social reality by representatives of generation Z. The data obtained in the course of the study represent the image of the “zoomer” as a “good citizen”, inclined to independence in decision-making, rational-critical discussion and gaining knowledge. The knowledge, abilities, skills and perceptions acquired by “digital natives” as a result of interaction with physical reality turn out to be more significant than the same competencies, but acquired in the virtual world. Gen Z representatives generally do not support extremist ideas, and the authority of teachers and educators is practically unshakable.
On the other hand, the research results reveal a number of social disfunctions of representatives of generation Z, in particular, the lack of self-criticism. The respondents show a readiness to criticize others, information from the Internet, the actions of authorities and economic agents, but, apparently, do not criticize themselves and their own opinions, their position, their actions. This probably speaks of a general trend associated with the humanization of public relations and greater concern for the protection of human and civil rights and freedoms, but it also speaks of the prevailing model of perception of social reality that corresponds to a certain generally accepted standard. The survey focused mainly on students, who probably consider studying at a university as a necessary and important process in the formation of a personality, so important that it is not questioned. This may also be related to the age of students, which largely depends on the opinions of parents and teachers. But this is largely due to digitalization - the possibility of self-expression through social networks. Self-PR excludes selfcriticism.
An uncritical attitude towards self-promotion means opens up almost unlimited trust in "smart" devices and platforms. “Digital natives” deserve such a name, since the fusion of oneself with the technical world gives rise to a curious phenomenon – a phygital or, more precisely, psychotechnical reality, a view of society and the world around us through the prism of an information bubble that surrounds a person. These are full-fledged socio-technical systems in which natural and artificial intelligences mutually enrich each other.
It is difficult to answer the question of how such a situation will affect the quantity and quality of various types of capital, if we follow the ideas of P. Bourdieu. While social capital flows from the physical to the virtual world, civil and cultural capital can increase. Individualization and atomization can foster an increased focus on civic engagement and creativity. An increase in the level of education can also lead to participation in cultural production and reproduction, which affects the level of cultural capital only positively.
Also, at the moment, there is no definite answer to the nature of the mutual influence of the involvement of representatives of generation Z in the virtual world on innovative activity. On the one hand, the growing volumes of information used by "buzzers" should create a positive dynamic of creative capital. However, on the other - and probably more important - side, the choice of the information consumed, the quality of the content is of fundamental importance, and here, most likely, the fundamental influence of the Internet on creativity will not be found.
Summing up the research, it should be noted that the topic of social capital of generation Z is far from being completed and developed. A more detailed and detailed study of the social capital of generation Z is the scientific task of the team of authors in the near future.
The study was conducted under support the "Center for Sociological and Internet Research at SPBU Science Park" resource center (the project No. 106-14771). This work was financially supported by the Russian Scientific Foundation, grant No. 19-18-00210 “Political ontology of digitalization: a study of the institutional foundations of digital formats of state governance”. 8. References