02.05.2020

Modern society The place of youth in modern society. Lesson “Youth in modern society. Students read aloud

YOUTH – a socio-demographic group identified on the basis of age parameters, characteristics social status and socio-psychological qualities.

One of the first definitions of the concept of “youth” was given in 1968 by V.T. Lisovsky:

"Youth is a generation of people who are going through the stage of socialization, who have acquired, and in later life have already acquired, educational, professional, cultural and other social functions; Depending on specific historical conditions, the age criteria for young people can range from 16 to 30 years.”

Later, a more complete definition was given by I.S. Konom:

“Youth is a socio-demographic group, identified on the basis of a combination of age characteristics, characteristics of social status and socio-psychological properties determined by both. Youth as a certain phase, stage of the life cycle is biologically universal, but its specific age framework, the associated social status and socio-psychological characteristics are of a socio-historical nature and depend on the social system, culture and the patterns of socialization characteristic of a given society.”

In developmental psychology, youth is characterized as a period of formation of a stable system of values, the formation of self-awareness and social status personality.

The consciousness of a young person has a special sensitivity, the ability to process and assimilate a huge flow of information. During this period, they develop: critical thinking, the desire to give their own assessment of various phenomena, the search for argumentation, original thinking. At the same time, at this age some attitudes and stereotypes characteristic of the previous generation still remain. Hence, in the behavior of young people there is an amazing combination of contradictory qualities and traits: the desire for identification and isolation, conformism and negativism, imitation and denial of generally accepted norms, the desire for communication and withdrawal, detachment from the outside world.

Youth consciousness determined by a number of objective circumstances.

Firstly, in modern conditions The process of socialization itself became more complex and lengthened, and accordingly the criteria for its social maturity became different. They are determined not only by entering an independent working life, but also by completing education, obtaining a profession, real political and civil rights, and financial independence from parents.

Secondly, the formation of social maturity of young people occurs under the influence of many relatively independent factors: family, school, work collective, media, youth organizations and spontaneous groups.

The boundaries of youth are fluid. They depend on the socio-economic development of society, the achieved level of well-being and culture, and people’s living conditions. The impact of these factors is really manifested in the life expectancy of people, the expansion of the boundaries of youth age from 14 to 30 years.

Young people believe that the social values that their “fathers” lived by lose their practical significance in any new historical situation and, as a result, are not inherited by their children.

Today main task survival of Belarusian society is the solution to the problem of maintaining social stability and transmission cultural heritage from one generation to another. This process has never been automatic. It always assumed the active participation of all generations in it.

It is necessary to remember that it is at a young age that a system of value orientations is formed, the process of self-education, self-creation of the individual and establishment in society is actively underway.

In today’s rapidly changing, dynamically developing world, young people have to decide for themselves what is more valuable – getting rich by any means or acquiring high qualifications that help them adapt to new conditions; denial of previous moral norms or flexibility, adaptability to new reality; unlimited freedom of interpersonal relationships or family.

The value system is the foundation of a person’s relationship to the world.

Values are a relatively stable, socially conditioned attitude of a person to the totality of material and spiritual goods, cultural phenomena that serve as a means of satisfying the needs of the individual.

Core values include:

1. Humanity;

2. Good manners;

3. Education;

4. Tolerance;

5. Kindness;

6. Honesty;

7. Hard work;

8. Love;

In post-Soviet times, young people acquired a number of new qualities, both positive and negative.

The positive ones include:

1. The desire for self-organization and self-government;

2. Interest in political events in the country and region;

3. Indifference to problems national language and culture;

4. Participation in organizing your leisure time;

5. Focus on self-education;

TO negative qualities such as:

1. Tobacco smoking, drug use and teenage alcoholism;

2. Doing nothing;

3. Sexual experimentation;

4. Infantility and indifference (nihilism);

5. Uncertainty and unpredictability;

Several important sociocultural conditions for successful personal socialization can be identified:

1. Healthy family microenvironment;

2. Favorable creative atmosphere at school, lyceum, gymnasium;

3. Positive impact fiction and art;

4. Media influence;

5. Aestheticization of the nearest macroenvironment (yard, neighborhood, club, sports ground, etc.)

6. Active involvement in social activities;

Social adaptation is a controlled process. It can be managed not only in line with the influence of social institutions on the individual during his production, non-production, pre-production, post-production life, but also in line with self-government.

IN general view Most often, there are four stages of personality adaptation in a new social environment:

1. the initial stage, when an individual or group realizes how they should behave in a new social environment, but are not yet ready to recognize and accept the value system of the new environment and strive to adhere to the previous value system;

2. the stage of tolerance, when the individual, group and new environment show mutual tolerance to each other’s value systems and patterns of behavior;

3. accommodation, i.e. recognition and acceptance by the individual of the basic elements of the value system of the new environment while simultaneously recognizing some of the values of the individual and group as the new social environment;

4. assimilation, i.e. complete coincidence of the value systems of the individual, group and environment;

Complete social adaptation of a person includes physiological, managerial, economic, pedagogical, psychological and professional adaptation.

Specific points of social adaptation technology:

It is only human nature to create special “devices”, certain social institutions, norms, traditions that facilitate the process of his adaptation in a given social environment;

Only a person has the ability to consciously prepare the younger generation for the process of adaptation, using all means of education for this;

The process of “acceptance” or “rejection” by individuals of existing social relations depends both on social affiliation, worldview, and on the orientation of upbringing;

A person consciously acts as a subject of social adaptation, changing his views, attitudes, and value orientations under the influence of circumstances;

Social adaptation is the process of an individual’s active mastery of the social environment, in which the individual acts both as an object and as a subject of adaptation, and the social environment is both an adapting and adaptable party.

Successful social adaptation of the individual requires the maximum expenditure of the individual’s spiritual energy.

Youth is the path to the future that a person chooses. Choosing the future, planning it is characteristic young age; he would not be so attractive if a person knew in advance what would happen to him tomorrow, in a month, in a year.

The general conclusion: “Each subsequent generation of young people is worse than the previous one in terms of basic indicators of social status and development.” This is expressed, first of all, in the trend of a reduction in the number of young people, which leads to an aging society and, consequently, a decrease in the role of youth as a social resource in general.

The demographic situation is complicated by something new in Belarusian reality – an increase in murders and suicides, including among young people. The reason is the emergence of difficult personal and life situations. According to data, 10% of graduates of state institutions for orphans commit suicide, not being able to adapt to living conditions.

Firstly, the unresolved socio-economic and everyday problems.

Secondly, there is a tendency for the health of children and adolescents to deteriorate. The growing generation is less healthy physically and mentally than the previous one. On average, in Belarus, only 10% of school graduates can consider themselves absolutely healthy, 45–50% of them have serious morphofunctional abnormalities.

IN Lately Among students, there was a clear increase in the number of diseases such as:

1. mental disorders;

2. peptic ulcer of the gastrointestinal tract;

3. alcohol and drug addiction;

4. sexually transmitted diseases;

Some young people, due to an unbalanced diet and decreased physical activity, gain excess weight, spend little time outdoors, and do not participate in sports and recreational activities.

Thirdly, there is a tendency to expand the process of desocialization and marginalization of young people. The number of young people leading an asocial, immoral lifestyle is increasing. For various reasons and to varying degrees, these include: disabled people, alcoholics, tramps, “professional beggars,” persons serving sentences in correctional labor institutions who strive to be socially useful citizens, but due to social conditions cannot become one. There is lumpenization and criminalization of youth. ¾ of students consider themselves to be low-income.

Fourthly, there is a trend towards decreasing opportunities for young people to participate in economic development. Statistics show that the share of young people among the unemployed remains high. The labor market is characterized by a significant flow of labor from the state to the non-state sector of the economy.

By moving into the field for positions that do not require professional knowledge, young people risk their future well-being without ensuring the accumulation of intellectual property - professionalism. Moreover, this area of employment is characterized by a very high degree of criminalization.

Fifthly, there is a downward trend in the social value of labor and the prestige of a number of professions important to society. Sociological research in recent years has stated that in work motivation, priority is given not to meaningful work, but to work aimed at obtaining material benefits. “Big salary” - this motive turned out to be decisive when choosing a place of work.

Modern youth have a trait that shows that most of them want to have a good income, while having neither a profession nor the desire to work. This happens due to the fact that young people lack incentives to work.

The problem of criminal influence on young people has recently been of concern to the Belarusian public. Among criminal offenses, every fourth is committed by young people and teenagers. Among the offenses, mercenary crimes attract attention - theft, extortion of money, fraud. When analyzing statistical data, the volume of acquisitive crimes is currently growing rapidly. This depends on the fact that differentiation occurs among young people and for the majority of young people, parents cannot give what they would like, taking into account their needs. But they themselves cannot get this due to the fact that they do not have a specialty or work skills. Young people do not want to get an education just because they have no prospects after receiving an education. Currently, more and more young people are using drugs. Maybe this comes from the hopelessness of realizing their potential or from the fact that, due to a lack of understanding of the seriousness, they were involved in this by people interested in selling drugs.

Youth as a socio-demographic group. The importance of age in determining the characteristics of a given group. The relationship between biological, psychological and social.

Age as a social phenomenon and personality characteristic. Types of age: chronological, physiological, subjective, symbolic, etc.

Value orientations of the individual. Education of teenagers and young people as a problem. Morality and ethics in modern society: the opinion of educators and students.

Features of determining a generation (Mannheim). The problem of relationships between generations (M. Mead). Peers and contemporaries. Identification with a generation.

Young people are the object of study in many social and humanitarian disciplines: philosophy, pedagogy, demography, politics, sociology, psychology. Social background and factors environment have a significant impact on life path of the individual, starting from the pace of physical maturation and ending with the content of the worldview. For example, social background, occupation and level of education of parents; features of the socio-ecological environment, in particular the type settlement(big city, small town, village); composition, structure and financial situation of the family; his own social status and type of occupation. National and ethnocultural characteristics are added to socio-economic differences. Hence the need to study the problems of adolescence and youth by representatives of different sciences.

Youth as a socio-demographic group has such features as age, position in the social structure, specificity of consciousness and behavior, a special form of culture (subculture), the specific role of youth that it plays in the process of generational change in the system of reproduction and development of society. That is, the functioning and development of youth reflects the formation of a subject of social production and social life (Chuprov, Zubok 2009).

One of the first sociological definitions of the concept of “youth” in the late 1960s was formulated by the founder of the Leningrad school of research on youth problems, sociologist V.T. Lisovsky: « The youth- this is a generation of people who go through the stage of socialization, assimilate (and at a more mature age have already acquired) educational, professional and cultural functions and are prepared (prepared) by society to assimilate and fulfill social roles. Depending on specific historical conditions, the age criteria for youth can range from 16 to 30 years.”

Later a more complete definition was given by I.S. Con : « The youth– a socio-demographic group identified on the basis of a combination of age characteristics, characteristics of social status and socio-psychological properties determined by both.

Youth- a certain stage of human maturation and development, lying between childhood and adulthood. The transition from childhood to adulthood is usually divided into two stages: adolescence (adolescence) And youth (early and late). However, the chronological boundaries of these ages are often defined in completely different ways, for example, in Russian psychiatry, the age from 14 to 18 years is called adolescence, while in psychology, 16–18 year olds are considered young men.

Age terminology has never been unambiguous. IN « Explanatory dictionary"V. Dalya young man is defined as “a young guy from 15 to 20 years old or more”, and teenager- like a “child in adolescence”, about 14–15 years old. In the Old Russian language the word "youth" meant a child, a teenager, and a young man. The same vagueness of edges is characteristic of classical and medieval Latin.

Adolescence– the stage of formation of self-awareness and one’s own worldview, the stage of making responsible decisions, the stage of human intimacy, when the values of friendship, love, intimacy may be paramount.

Answering the questions: “Who am I?”, “What am I?”, “What am I striving for?”, the young man forms:

- self-awareness– a holistic idea of oneself, an emotional attitude towards oneself, self-esteem.

- own worldview How whole system views, knowledge, beliefs of his life philosophy, which is based on the previously acquired significant amount of knowledge and the formed ability for abstract theoretical thinking.

- the desire to rethink and critically understand everything around us, to assert oneself, to create one’s own theories of the meaning of life, love, happiness, politics.

Youth as a certain phase, stage of the life cycle, is biologically universal, but its specific age framework, associated social status and socio-psychological characteristics are of a socio-historical nature and depend on the social system, culture and the patterns of socialization inherent in a given society.”

(Bezrukova 2004).

B. G. Ananyev distinguishes two phases of youth, one of which is on the border with childhood, and the other on the border with maturity. Both phases differ both in the patterns of psychophysiological and intellectual development, and in the peculiarities of personality formation, and, consequently, in the degree of formation of the personality as a subject of activity.

Early youth(15-17 years old), belonging to the first phase, is characterized by the uncertainty of the young person’s position in society. At this age, the young man realizes that he is no longer a child, but at the same time not yet an adult.

Second phase of adolescence, which in many age classifications is called youth as such (18-25 years), represents the initial link of maturity. Vygotsky was inclined to relate this phase of youth to the system of ages of maturity: “According to the general meaning and basic laws, the age from 18-25 years is more likely the initial link in the chain of mature ages than the final link in the chain of child development.”

Youthful thinking is more flexible and at the same time more realistic than childish thinking. It captures the polysemy of words and concepts. Youth is the age of heated debate, philosophizing, theorizing even on well-known topics, searching for the formula of happiness and the formula of love. Youth is especially sensitive to one’s own “I” and, in general, to “internal” psychological problems. The main psychological acquisition of early youth is the discovery of one’s inner world. Young people, in large part, have a level of mobility, intellectual activity and health that distinguishes them favorably from other groups of the population.

V.V. Ginzburg considers youth to be a transitional period to maturity. “The transition of an organism from adolescence to adulthood does not at all mean the cessation of development of the organism. It enters a new phase, characterized by more stable forms of metabolism and relatively little changing forms of body structure.”

In the definition of youth, the following characteristics can be distinguished that distinguish youth from other groups:
· age limits of youth;
· specificity of social status;
· role functions and behavioral characteristics;
· characteristics of the socio-demographic group;
· socio-psychological characteristics;

· the process of socialization in a specific historical period;
· self-identification and self-determination of youth as a social group.

(Bezrukova 2004).
The German anthropologist G. Grimm, noting the uncertainty of the position of youth in the age system, emphasizes the importance of social conditions. “Youth is a period of life when a maturing teenager enters the sphere of specific influences of the production environment. In this case, mutual relationships arise in which, on the one hand, known morphological prerequisites determine suitability for a certain type of professional activity, on the other hand, as a result of this type of activity, stimuli arise that stimulate the development of an organism that is still in the process of growth.”

Ideas about the properties and capabilities of individuals of each age are closely related to the age stratification existing in society. Chronological age, or more precisely, the level of development of an individual assumed by him, directly or indirectly reflects his social position, nature of activity, range of social roles, etc. The gender and age division of labor largely determines the social status, self-awareness and level of aspirations of members of the corresponding age group.

Age serves as a criterion for occupying or leaving certain social roles, and this connection can be both direct and indirect (for example, the time required to obtain an education, without which it is impossible to occupy a certain social position). In some cases, the criteria are normative and legal (school age, civil age), in others they are factual (for example, average age marriage), and the degree of certainty of age criteria and boundaries in different societies And different areas activities are very variable.

Age stratification also includes a system of age-related socio-psychological expectations and sanctions (ideas about “normal behavior” and the degree of responsibility of a teenager and an adult, etc.).

Adolescence denotes the phase of transition from dependent childhood to independent and responsible adulthood, which presupposes, on the one hand, the completion of physical, in particular sexual, maturation, and on the other, the achievement of social maturity. But this happens differently in different societies.

IN primitive societies, with their relatively simple and stable social structure, the individual relatively easily learned the social roles and work skills necessary for an adult. Low life expectancy did not allow society to particularly delay the “preparatory period.” Childhood ended early, education and training were predominantly practical in nature: children learned by participating, in a manner feasible for them, in labor and other activities of adults.

In the future, the criteria for social maturation become more complex and become more multidimensional. In the Middle Ages, the transfer of experience accumulated by elders was carried out mainly through the direct practical inclusion of the child in the activities of adults. The child performed auxiliary functions in the parental family or outside the home; learning was an organic part of work and life, and the criteria for maturity were class-based. In describing childhood and adolescence, medieval thought emphasizes not so much the task of preparing for future life, how much is the moment of social dependence. The most important criterion for adulthood was the creation of one's own family, which was associated with independence and responsibility.

New times have brought important social and psychological changes. In modern society there is heterochronic sequence of biological and social maturation of adolescents , which finds expression in the contradictions observed during adolescence. Physical, in particular sexual, maturation has noticeably accelerated, forcing us to “lower” the boundaries of adolescence. On the contrary, the complication of social and labor activities in which a person must participate has entailed an extension of the required training periods. These contradictions boil down to the fact that a high standard of living in society accelerates the maturation of the body and, at the same time, delays the time for the beginning of active participation of young people in the creation of material and spiritual benefits of society. Physical maturity occurs much earlier than social maturity. New generations of young people begin independent working lives much later than their peers in the past and study longer. Hence the lengthening of the period of “role moratorium” (when the young man “tryes on” various adult roles, but is not yet completely identified with them).

The extension of youth has its own personal prerequisites: expanding the sphere of conscious self-determination and increasing its independence. In a society of a patriarchal-feudal type, the life path of an individual in its main features was predetermined by the existing social structure and tradition. In the professional sphere, the young man, as a rule, inherited the occupations of his parents. His social aspirations were limited by class. His parents chose his bride, often long before he reached manhood and regardless of his personal inclinations and sympathies. Only an outstanding person could break out of this social constraint and even recognize it as such.

In modern conditions, it is necessary for a young man to be socially competent, that is, capable of self-government. Any control requires information, information about the object of control. In self-government, this should be the subject’s information about himself. Social self-determination is the determination of one’s position in the world; it is directed not inward to the individual, but outward. But answering the questions of who to be and what to do also implies a certain assessment of oneself and one’s capabilities.

In a new time of opportunity individual choice- profession, wife (husband), lifestyle - have expanded significantly. A person’s psychological horizons are not limited by his immediate environment. Greater freedom of choice promotes the formation of an independent social character and provides a greater variety of individual variations. But reverse side This is a complication of the process of self-determination.

Modern society is characterized by the growth of social autonomy of young people from their elders and individual self-determination.

Approaches to the development of special theories in the sociology of youth.
1. Psychoanalytic approach. Within the framework of this approach, the direction of neo-Freudianism is highlighted. The founder, the Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, put forward a number of important provisions about the nature of adolescent and youthful sexuality, emotional processes and features of the development of youthful personality, which were later developed by his numerous followers.

The most influential representative of neo-Freudianism in developmental psychology was the famous American psychologist Erik Erikson. Human development, according to Erikson, consists of three interrelated, although autonomous processes: somatic development, studied by biology, development of the conscious “I,” studied by psychology, and social development studied by sociology and other social sciences.

The basic law of development is the “epigenetic principle,” according to which at each new stage of development new phenomena and properties arise that were not present at the previous stages of the process. The transition to a new phase of development occurs in the form of a “normative crisis”, which superficially resembles pathological phenomena, but in fact expresses normal difficulties of growth. The transition to a new phase of development is possible only on the basis of resolving the main contradiction inherent in the previous phase.

Erikson divides the entire life course into eight phases, each of which has its own specific tasks and can be resolved favorably or unfavorably for future development.

The first phase is infancy. Its main task is to develop in the child an unconscious sense of “basic trust” in the outside world. The main means of this are parental care and love. If “basic trust” does not arise, the infant develops feelings of “basic distrust” of the world, anxiety, which can manifest itself in an adult in the form of isolation, withdrawal, etc.

In second phase – early childhood– the child develops a sense of his autonomy and personal value or their opposite – shame and doubt. The growth of the child’s independence, starting with the control of his bodily functions, gives him the opportunity to choose, due to which, at this stage of development, such traits of the future personality as a sense of responsibility, respect for discipline and order are laid.

Third phase – playing age(approximately from 5 to 7 years) – creates a sense of initiative, a desire to do something. If this desire is blocked, a feeling of guilt arises. At this age, group play and communication with peers are crucial, allowing the child to try on different roles, develop imagination, etc. At this stage, a sense of justice is established, understood as compliance with the rule.

Fourth phase– school age – a sense of enterprise, the ability to achieve a goal. The most important values creativity and competence become. In the negative version of development, the child develops a feeling of inferiority, which initially arises from the consciousness of his incompetence, failure to solve certain specific problems, most often related to learning, and then spreads to the personality as a whole. At this age, the attitude towards work is formed.

Fifth phase– youth – is characterized by the emergence of a feeling of one’s uniqueness, individuality, and dissimilarity from others; in the negative version, a diffuse, vague “I”, role and personal uncertainty arise. A typical feature of this phase of development is a “role moratorium”: the range of roles performed expands, but the young man does not assimilate these roles seriously and completely, but rather tries them on, trying them on. Erikson analyzes in detail the mechanisms of formation of self-awareness, a new sense of time, psychosexual interests, as well as pathogenic processes and options for the development of youth.

Sixth phase– youth – characterized by the emergence of the need and ability for intimate psychological intimacy with another person, including sexual intimacy. The alternative is a feeling of isolation and loneliness.

The most important acquisition seventh phase– adulthood – creative activity and the accompanying feeling of productivity. They are manifested not only in work, but also in caring for others, including offspring, in the need to pass on one’s experience, etc. In the negative version, a feeling of stagnation (stagnation) appears.

Eighth phase- mature age, or old age - is characterized by the appearance of a feeling of satisfaction, fullness of life, fulfilled duty, and in the negative case - despair and disappointment. The highest virtue of this age is detachment and wisdom, i.e. the ability to look at the work of one’s own and others’ hands from a certain height.

Human development involves the joint action of innate and environmental components. Representatives of society - educators, parents - are connected with the child by their own innate needs. If a child needs emotional warmth, then parents feel the need to take care and nurse the baby. It is the coincidence of these two differently directed needs that provides the desired result. At the same time, each society has specific institutions within the framework and through which the socialization of children is carried out. Therefore, although the general sequence and main tasks of the main phases of epigenesis are universal and invariant, typical ways of solving these problems vary from one society to another. Society prepares the individual to perform relevant social functions by determining the ways in which the individual himself resolves the life tasks that stand in his way.

2. Structural-functional approach. Among the followers of this trend is the Israeli sociologist Sh. Eisenstadt, who owns the work “From Generation to Generation.” Following the classics - E. Durkheim, R. Merton, T. Parsons - he considers a youth group as a system of structural positions filled by individuals, as a result of which they acquire a certain social status and corresponding social roles. Each role serves as a basic unit in a structural interaction that regulates certain aspects of the behavior of the young person. The undoubted merit of the supporters of this approach was the construction of the concept of intergenerational interaction, according to which the main goal of any social system is self-reproduction. It is achieved through age differentiation of society with strictly defined social functions. Moreover, the roles performed by an individual at each stage of life must be clearly oriented in relation to one of his main functions - the subject or object of social and cultural inheritance. Disruption of the process of transition of roles from one generation to another can lead to serious deformation, and in special cases and to the complete collapse of the entire structure of social relationships. A similar approach formed the basis of special sociological theories - the “sexual revolution” (W. Reich, G. Marcuse), “generational conflict” (D. Bell, E. Fromm, R. Merton).

A significant contribution that enriched this tradition in the sociology of youth were the works of our compatriots: V. Borovik, S. Bykova, V. Vasilyev, S. Grigoriev, G. Zhuravlev, A. Kapto, E. Katulsky, A. Kulagin, L. Kogan etc. The subject of analysis here was the trends in the formation of young replenishments of the working class, collective farm peasantry, intelligentsia, their social status, labor and social activity, as well as the discrepancy between professional status and qualifications, level of education and material security, formal inclusion in management structures and real participation in decision-making - in a word, fundamental contradictions that determine the nature of relations between youth and society.

(Chuprov).
3. Cultural approach. This approach is characterized by consideration of social phenomena, including specifically youth ones, from the point of view phenomenological sociology. Sharing the ideas of its founders A. Schutz, P. Berger, T. Luckmann, researchers strive to comprehend the world of youth in its purely human existence, in relation to specific ideas, goals and behavioral motives of actually acting individuals. Thanks to the use of the cultural tradition, sociology has gained the opportunity to systematically analyze youth problems in connection with real processes occurring in society. A classic example is the work of a German sociologist K. Mannheim. Exploring the phenomenon of generational unity, he revealed the mechanism of social inheritance. The urgent need to transmit and assimilate material and spiritual experience constantly confronts young people with the phenomenon of human culture; This continuous contact of young generations with the achievements of civilization is of great importance for society, because it opens up ways to reassess the acquired cultural baggage and reorient movement in a new direction.

The continuity of generations.

To analyze this phenomenon in sociology, proposals are used in the context of which it is possible different approach to the interpretation of the concept of generation and, accordingly, the place of youth in it.

Youth in modern society

1. Sociocultural situation of youth development in modern society

People's daily lives are often at risk. This is especially true for young people. It is one of the main categories of the population most exposed to risk factors. After all, she has an inherent desire for the new, the unknown, and risk provides a chance to succeed. Young people are less reflective about the possible consequences of risk, but they also often lose. By relying on chance, young people risk ending up without the desired education, not finding a job, not starting a family, not being able to withstand competition in business, and being left out of work. What sociocultural factors and conditions of social life of modern youth allow us to assert that this social group is in a high-risk zone.

However, before starting to analyze the MGR, it is necessary to clarify which categories of the population can be classified as “youth”.

In modern sociological studies, youth are defined not simply as an age group, but as a specific socio-demographic formation, characterized, on the one hand, by its inherent psychological and physiological characteristics, the implementation of predominantly activities related to preparation and inclusion in public life, in the social mechanism; on the other hand, its subculture, internal differentiation corresponding to the social division of society.

The main group-forming criterion for young people is age limits. The youth group in modern society usually includes people from 16 to 29 years old. However, there is no unity among researchers (some include older teenagers in this group, expanding the lower age limit to 13-14 years).

The specificity of youth as a special social group, with its inherent characteristics and properties in modern society, is that its representatives are in the stage of formation and disclosure of their social potential. The majority do not have their own social status, occupying a place in the social structure in accordance with the social status of their parents or their own future status associated with obtaining a profession. At the same time, if the status of an adult is entirely determined by his professional demand, the amount of accumulated social capital, the young man is included in the structure of informal relations (youth movements, subcultural and other organizations, political, religious, ideological associations, etc.), and this informal status is essential for him. In addition, young people, due to the fact that in every sense (social, psychological, ideological) are in the process of formation, they are more susceptible than other age groups to various social, political, cultural, ideological influences, which contributes to high mobility her value orientations, and also makes her more unpredictable and difficult to predict social behavior. All these specific characteristics of young people, to a large extent, determine the complex age-related sociocultural situation of development and the high degree of probability of young people being at risk. Let's look specifically at what risk factors young people have to face.

Speaking about the problems of modern youth, we should proceed from a number of contradictions that determine the development of the younger generation:

Between the flourishing of intellectual and physical strength and the strict limit of time and economic opportunities to satisfy increased needs;

Between a focus on personal well-being and unawareness of the value of one’s own life, which leads to unjustified risk;

Between fairly clearly realized desires and aspirations and an insufficiently developed will and strength of character necessary to achieve them;

Between awareness of one’s own ideals and life plans and their social abstraction;

Between the desire to quickly free oneself from parental care and the difficulties of social and psychological adaptation to the conditions of independent living;

Between developed egocentrism, on the one hand, and increased conformity to the peer group, on the other;

Between the desire to make your own choice and the lack of desire to bear responsibility for its consequences.

The identified contradictions determine the specific nature of the sociocultural self-realization of young people and the marginalization of their social status.

Social risks in the lives of modern young people

The problems of Russia's youth are largely related to the objective processes that are taking place in the modern world: urbanization, an increase in the proportion of pensioners and people in society old age, a decline in the birth rate, etc. But at the same time, youth problems in Russia also have their own specifics, mediated by Russian reality and the policies that were pursued in relation to youth.

Some youth experts believe that every young person is potentially at riskm. This position is determined by the idea that growing up also means an inevitable struggle to be oneself, to be different from others, and, therefore, already in the process age development there are contradictions that are inevitably accompanied by various risks. A number of researchers argue that the risk situation is determined lack of moral educationI, which is typical in recent decades for Russian society and the result is that many young people risk falling into the traps of modern society. Youth represents the period of personality formation. The incompleteness of this process determines the exposure of young people to various influences, and the lack of life experience prevents them from developing the correct attitude towards certain people or events. Therefore, a young person needs targeted, value-oriented education. If society withdraws from the implementation of educational functions, the process becomes spontaneous, and, consequently, the degree of risk increases.

There are quite a lot of supporters that young people at risk are simply those young people who try drugs and alcohol(too narrow an approach - a little later). But there are others who are convinced that persistent unemployment and intergenerational poverty are what really threaten young people.

Social instability and uncertainty. The life activities of young people are carried out in social conditions, which also pose various threats and risks. The ability to predict not only the distant, but also the near future is reduced, which introduces uncertainty and instability into the life of young people entering into social relations. In a socioculturally stable society, there are no sharp differences between generations. This smoothness of intergenerational transition indicates the effectiveness of socialization mechanisms. The appearance of society, although inevitably changing, maintains a sufficient level of continuity. In a situation of social instability and increased riskiness, the norms and values that guided fathers are sharply rejected, normal intergenerational interaction is disrupted, a conflict of values arises, and young people find themselves disoriented.

Peer group influence. In the social sciences, the development of youth appears as a directed change in its social qualities in the process of reproduction social structure, i.e. as a certain direction of her mobility. In the ordinary consciousness of a young person, this is expressed in the desire to achieve the status of representatives of his reference groups. During this age period, the opinion of peers and a place in the emerging group hierarchy turns into a super value. One’s own role in the group is absolutized and perceived as a universal life role. Therefore, people who found themselves outsiders in their youth often retain this attitude later. Achieving the desired status in a group brings satisfaction and is an incentive for further status advancement, and failure to realize plans leads to disappointment and the search for other ways of self-determination in life. The unattainability of the desired identity causes an individual to have a deep break with society and with himself. This is the so-called crisisa type of socialization that is characterized by a discrepancy between the functions and roles performed by an individual, an increase in deviations, etc.

Limitation vertical mobility . But even under conditions of normal socialization, social and personal self-determination are fraught with risk. First of all, this is determined disabilities provided by society for the vertical mobility of young people. Awareness of limitations stimulates young people to take decisive and risky actions, the outcome of which is difficult to predict in conditions of instability. Success contributes to the social self-determination of a young person. However, having failed to realize themselves in society, young people are faced with an alternative: to find themselves on the sidelines of life or to follow the path of violating legal and moral norms. The state of uncertainty is increasing. Then the risk appears again, but when trying to overcome uncertainty, and is expressed in adverse consequences in case of failure, the probability of which is very high. The increasing degree of risk for many young people results in threats to their career, family, and stable life.

Social and economic crisis in Russiaworsened the social situation of young people and put them in conflict with society. This predetermined the risk of unrealized opportunities and social exclusion (exclusion) for many young people. It is directly related to the fundamental property of a risk society, which, undoubtedly, can be considered modern Russian society - uncertainty and unpredictability of life's path,self-determination and self-realization to a greater or lesser extent of all young people, which cannot but influence the nature of the social development of youth as a group.

Professional self-determination. During early adolescence, a person experiences a process of professional self-orientation, a search for his place in the adult world. Increased interest in “beautiful” professions. However, lack of opportunities (abilities) can cause disappointment in yourself and in life. But there is another aspect to the problem. Due to age-related psychological characteristics, young people actively strive to achieve options for existence that are actively imposed on them (primarily by the media). The focus on material values corrects the professional development of young people, which is determined not by the desire for self-realization and creativity in work, but by the search for work with situationally high earnings. This attitude is reinforced by the real condition of a transitive society - high level youth unemployment, which affects those age cohorts where the processes of socio-professional development are most intense. Consequently, young people are more vulnerable and open to marginalization, alienation and social exclusion.

Stratification gap. IN modern Russia Property and social stratification is so significant that belonging to a certain social stratum entirely determines the life prospects and opportunities for self-realization of young people. Young people from different social strata have unequal chances even at the start of life. On the one hand, we can already talk about the formed elite group of “golden youth”, whose high status and unlimited material, social and educational opportunities reflect the exclusive position of their parents in society. On the other hand, there is a significant layer of young people who, due to poverty and the low social status of their parents, have an extremely narrow range of life prospects. And if, say, for a young Russian from a family with high material income it is a choice between studying at a domestic or foreign university, for a boy or girl from a family of certain categories of employees - between study or work, then people from low-income, large or single-parent families often one has to choose between social passivity, pessimism and aggressiveness, between a miserable existence and crime. As you can see, everyone is at risk. But for some it is a risk of downward mobility, and for others it is a threat of criminalization. Moreover, the likelihood of risk increases many times over for young people from low-income families.

Focus on pleasure and entertainment. As many researchers note, the consumer type of social functioning predominates among modern youth. Largely under the influence of the media, their system of assessments and preferences is increasingly oriented towards leisure. The desire to achieve success in educational and industrial activities, in social work among modern young people is often replaced by other needs and interests - fashionable clothes, music, videos, alcoholic drinks, information significant for a given microenvironment, etc.

This situation is expressed in the desire to get maximum pleasure from life. This gives rise to a number of risky effects. In particular, today there is a huge gap between the real situation in which Russian youth find themselves and their expectations. Despite the fact that recently confidence in the future, ambition and enterprise of young people in general have increased, they perceive current Russian society as a social pyramid, which mainly occupies the lower three steps out of ten. According to the Institute of Youth Sociology, 60.1% of young Russians experience social insecurity.

In turn, this leads to the emergence of addictive behavior (from the English addiction-dependence), associated with a person’s desire to leave real life by changing the state of his consciousness, including with the help of various kinds of psychoactive substances.

sociocultural youth self-determination society

Literature

1.Volkov Yu.G. Sociology. Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix Publishing House, 2004.

2. Zubok Yu.A. The problem of risk in the sociology of youth. M., 2003.

Kovalchuk M.A., Tarkhanova I.Yu. Negative trends in the formation of youth subculture. (electronic version).

Chuprov V.I., Zubok Yu.A., Williams K. Youth in a risk society. M., 2001.

Youth is the main bearer of the intellectual and physical potential of society; it has great abilities for work, technical and cultural-artistic creativity, productive activity in all spheres of human existence;

Young people have a great social and professional perspective; they are able to master new knowledge, professions and specialties faster than other social groups of society.

The fundamental issue when considering the role of youth in society is the question of youth as the subject and object of social change. Entering life, a young person is subject to the influence of social conditions, family, educational institutions, and later, in the process of growing up and transitioning to more mature phases of development, he himself begins to significantly influence society. That is, youth acts as a subject when they influence society, giving away their potential, at the same time they are an object, since social influence is directed at them with the aim of their development. Young people act as an object both to society and to themselves.

Without a doubt, youth are a very important part for Chuvashia and for Russia as a whole, since they are the most active component of the state. Young people are best suited to introduce new technologies, innovations and reforms. They are mobile and full of strength, so the Russian state is interested in the younger generation being involved in the economic life of Russia and the political... More recently, our country has passed the economic crisis, and is now at the stage of stabilization, so young specialists in the field of economics are simply necessary for Chuvashia. It follows that the state should be interested in the formation of a viable and healthy new generation, because youth are the “salvation” for the state in terms of creating a family and eliminating the demographic crisis.

In a word, Chuvashia in our time is doing everything for the successful development of the younger generation - the rest depends on us. Determination and ambition are the main components of a happy life and a prosperous future, so it is important to choose your path correctly now, because Youth is not eternal and goes away every day... Giving up bad habits, doing something worthy, finding a job you love will help change your life for the better . The future of Russia is in the hands of young people and this should always be remembered.

YOUTH is a socio-demographic group identified on the basis of age parameters, characteristics of social status and socio-psychological qualities.

One of the first definitions of the concept of “youth” was given in 1968 by V.T. Lisovsky:

“Youth is a generation of people going through the stage of socialization, acquiring, and at a more mature age having already acquired, educational, professional, cultural and other social functions; depending on specific historical conditions, the age criteria of youth can range from 16 to 30 years.”

Later, a more complete definition was given by I.S. Konom:

In developmental psychology, youth is characterized as a period of formation of a stable system of values, the formation of self-awareness and social status of the individual.

Youth consciousness is determined by a number of objective circumstances.

Firstly, in modern conditions the process of socialization itself has become more complex and lengthened, and accordingly the criteria for its social maturity have become different. They are determined not only by entering an independent working life, but also by completing education, obtaining a profession, real political and civil rights, and financial independence from parents.

Since ancient times, the formation of society has been accompanied by the process of socialization of new generations. One of the main problems in the socialization of young people is that they either accept the values of their fathers or completely abandon them. More often the latter happens. Young people believe that the social values that their “fathers” lived by lose their practical significance in any new historical situation and, as a result, are not inherited by their children.

Today, the main task of the survival of Belarusian society is to solve the problem of maintaining social stability and transferring cultural heritage from one generation to another. This process has never been automatic. It always assumed the active participation of all generations in it. It is necessary to remember that it is at a young age that a system of value orientations is formed, the process of self-education, self-creation of the individual and establishment in society is actively underway.

In today's rapidly changing, dynamically developing world, young people have to decide for themselves what is more valuable - enrichment by any means or acquisition of high qualifications that help them adapt to new conditions; denial of previous moral norms or flexibility, adaptability to new reality; unlimited freedom of interpersonal relationships or family.

Core values include:

1. Humanity;

2. Good manners;

3. Education;

4. Tolerance;

5. Kindness;

6. Honesty;

7. Hard work;

8. Love;

Young people have acquired a number of new qualities, both positive and negative.

The positive ones include:

1. The desire for self-organization and self-government;

2. Interest in political events in the country and region;

3. Concern for the problems of national language and culture;

4. Participation in organizing your leisure time;

5. Focus on self-education;

Negative qualities such as:

1. Tobacco smoking, drug use and teenage alcoholism;

2. Doing nothing;

3. Sexual experimentation;

4. Infantility and indifference (nihilism);

5. Uncertainty and unpredictability;

Several important sociocultural conditions for successful personal socialization can be identified:

1. Healthy family microenvironment;

2. Favorable creative atmosphere at school, lyceum, gymnasium;

3. The positive impact of fiction and art;

4. Media influence;

5. Aestheticization of the nearest macroenvironment (yard, neighborhood, club, sports ground, etc.)

6. Active involvement in social activities;

2. the stage of tolerance, when the individual, group and new environment show mutual tolerance to each other’s value systems and patterns of behavior;

4. assimilation, i.e. complete coincidence of the value systems of the individual, group and environment; Complete social adaptation of a person includes physiological, managerial, economic, pedagogical, psychological and professional adaptation.

Specific points of social adaptation technology:

* it is only human nature to create special “devices”, certain social institutions, norms, traditions that facilitate the process of his adaptation in a given social environment;

* only a person has the ability to consciously prepare the younger generation for the process of adaptation, using all means of education for this;

* the process of “acceptance” or “rejection” by individuals of existing social relations depends both on social affiliation, worldview, and on the orientation of upbringing;

* a person consciously acts as a subject of social adaptation, changing his views, attitudes, and value orientations under the influence of circumstances;

Successful social adaptation of the individual requires the maximum expenditure of the individual’s spiritual energy.

Youth is the path to the future that a person chooses. Choosing the future, planning it is a characteristic feature of young age; he would not be so attractive if a person knew in advance what would happen to him tomorrow, in a month, in a year.

The demographic situation is complicated by something new in Belarusian reality - an increase in murders and suicides, including among young people. The reason is the emergence of difficult personal and life situations. According to data, 10% of graduates of state institutions for orphans commit suicide, not being able to adapt to living conditions.

Firstly, the unresolved socio-economic and everyday problems.

Secondly, there is a tendency for the health of children and adolescents to deteriorate. The growing generation is less healthy physically and mentally than the previous one. On average, in Belarus, only 10% of school graduates can consider themselves absolutely healthy, 45-50% of them have serious morphofunctional abnormalities.

Recently, among students there has been a clear increase in the number of diseases such as:

1. mental disorders;

2. peptic ulcer of the gastrointestinal tract;

3. alcohol and drug addiction;

4. sexually transmitted diseases;

Some young people, due to an unbalanced diet and decreased physical activity, gain excess weight, spend little time outdoors, and do not participate in sports and recreational activities.

Social studies lesson in 11th grade

Topic: Youth in modern society

Goals and objectives: 1) show the main psychological characteristics of adolescence, trace the process of socialization

among young people, to characterize the main features of modern

youth subculture;

2) develop analytical skills social problems, compare opinions on social issues,

draw conclusions, rationally solve cognitive and problematic problems

tasks, to reveal the most important theoretical principles using examples

concepts and concepts of social sciences and humanities;

3) to form students’ attitude towards the problem of youth and responsibility

younger generation.

Equipment: diagrams, package of documents.

Lesson type: problem lesson.

During the classes

I. Organizing time

They (teenagers) today love luxury, they have bad manners and no respect for authority, they show disrespect for elders, loiter around and gossip constantly. He argues with his parents all the time, they constantly interfere in conversations and attract attention to themselves, they are gluttonous and tyrannical with teachers... (slide 1)

This was said by the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, who lived in 470-399. BC e.

How do young people live today? How do others treat her?

Some representatives of the older generation believe that a significant part of modern youth does not live, but lives, does not work, but earns extra money, does not work, but pretends. Is it so? Let's try to deal with this problem in today's lesson.

Lesson topic: “Youth in modern society.” (slide 2)

Lesson Plan

1. Youth as a social group.

2. The process of socialization of youth.

3.Youth problems.

4. Summing up the lessons.

II. Learning new material

1. Youth as a social group

The concept of “youth” is not so much age-related as it is social and historical. At different times and in different societies, young people of different ages fell into this category. For example, those whom we now call youth, a century ago, were not considered such at all.

In the modern world, youth as a social group usually includes people aged 16 to 25 years. For a person of this age, his inner world, his own thoughts, feelings, and awareness of his uniqueness become increasingly important.

Social scientists give the following definition of youth as a social group:

The youth is a socio-demographic group identified on the basis of a combination of age characteristics (approximately from 16 to 25 years (30), characteristics of social status and certain socio-psychological qualities .(slide3)

Why did youth as a special social group begin to be perceived by society only with the transition to the industrial phase of development? ?(slide4)

Find the answer to this question on p. 125textbook.

(Sample answer. 1. - The deepening of labor caused by the industrial revolution separated the family from the process of production and management of social processes. This made family education insufficient for mastering social roles.

2. The increasing complexity of technology and growing specialization required a lengthening of the period of general education to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills, so young people began to enter the labor market later.

3. The growth of people’s mobility, the complication of social life, the acceleration of the pace of social changes led to the fact that the lifestyle of the older and younger generations began to differ significantly.)

2. The process of socialization of youth

How does the process of socialization, i.e. growing up, proceed?

What problems do young people face along the way?

Divide into three groups and, working with the textbook, characterize and analyze the process of socialization of youth; identify the problems that young people have to face.

The first group is civil majority (clause 2 § 13). ( slides 5,6,7,8)

The second group is education and professional training

(paragraph 3 § 13).

The third group is the beginning of labor activity (clause 4 § 13).

Questions for the first group

1. From what period, according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, can a citizen independently fully exercise his rights and obligations?

2. What rights and freedoms does the young person receive?

3. At what age can young people get married? Are there exceptions?

4. What does full legal capacity mean?

5. What civic duties should a young citizen of the Russian Federation fulfill?

6. How does the status of a young person change when he reaches civil age?

7. Is it easy to be young?

Questions for the second group

1. What indicates the preservation of the prestige of education in our society?

2. On what principles is education built in our society? Do you think they are fair?

3. How do you feel about the emergence of private educational institutions and partial operation of state educational institutions on a paid, commercial basis?

4. Select arguments for and against paid education in Russia.

5. What risks await freshmen entering universities? Is it possible and necessary to fight this?

6. Is it easy to be young?

Questions for the third group

1. When do teenagers start thinking about working?

2. What do you think underlies their choice of future profession?

3. Prove that the current situation in terms of employment opportunities is very difficult and contradictory.

4. What factors of the current socio-economic situation in our country contribute and what hinder the employment of young people?

5. What workplace benefits are provided for minors?

6. Is it easy to be young? Slide9

3.Youth problems.

So, it's not so easy to be young...

The lesson continues by posing the problematic question: “Is it easy to be young?”

The class is asked to take a position on this issue, form groups, discuss and argue their position. After two minutes, each group defends its position. During the discussion, three groups are formed: one believes that it is easy to be young; another - it’s not easy to be young; third - being young is easy and not easy. After the discussion, the teacher makes the conclusion is that being young is easy, but problematic.

For the lesson, a sociological survey will be conducted among young people aged 16 to 20 years. The majority of respondents believe that it is easy to be young. And to the question: “Do you have problems?”, out of forty respondents, only ten have no problems. (Sociological survey data is posted on the board or displayed on a multimedia board; Kubekova Evg., Kulmanova Gilyan) slides 10,11,12,13.

Certain social groups are characterized by special features consciousness, behavior, lifestyle. They create their own cultural niche - a subculture. Young people were no exception - they also created their own subculture. (Lidzhieva Nyudlya, Dordzhieva Delya) slides14

The youth subculture has:

With your tongue;

Special fashion;

Art and style of behavior.

Its carriers are most often informal teenage groups.

What do you think motivates young people to create a subculture? (Sample answer: Internal loneliness. Need for friends. Conflicts at school and at home. Distrust of adults. Protest against lies. Escape from or rejection of social reality.)

111. Summary of lessons

Divide into groups. Group participants receive sheets of paper with expressions reflecting the attitude towards youth of various social groups:

“Eggs don’t teach a chicken” (“Parents”);

“Young-green” (“Older generation”);

“Hello, we are looking for talents!” (“Teachers”);

“Young people are welcome everywhere!” ("The youth").

1. You must determine which group this corresponds to

expression.

As a result, four groups are formed: “Parents”, “Youth”, “Teachers” and “Older Generation”.

2. Interactive exercise. Groups receive the task:

Draw schematically or using a drawing a portrait of a modern young man in accordance with the views characteristic of a given social group (“parents”, “teachers”, “older generation”, “youth”);

Prepare a presentation based on your diagram or drawing, in which you indicate what guided the creation of the portrait.

So, the presentations allowed us to draw the following conclusions:

it is impossible to judge unequivocally about modern youth;

youth in our society are heterogeneous, have different goals and value orientations;

the problem of youth has been relevant at all times;

There are many problems in the lives of modern young people that require attention and resolution.

Homework

Learn § 13, compose a syncwine on the topic “Modern youth - what are they like?”

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Modern society The place of youth in modern society. Lesson “Youth in modern society. Students read aloud

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