GENDER FEATURES OF YOUTH'S SENSITIVITY TO THE DESTRUCTIVE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL INTERNET NETWORKS

Abstract

The rapid growth in the number of users of social networks is the main trend of the modern information society. Unfortunately, information on social media is not always positive. The Internet is increasingly turning into a channel for negative influence on minors, educating them in a spirit of permissiveness and licentiousness, deforming their moral consciousness, contributing to victimization, marginalization and criminalization. And young people, due to their psychological and age characteristics, are sensitive to destructive virtual influences. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to identify and characterize the gender characteristics of the behavior of young people on social Internet networks, and their susceptibility to destructive influences. To achieve the goal of the study, methods of analysis, generalization and systematization of information were used on 58 (29 boys and 29 girls) pages of social network users from among students; conversations and testing to determine susceptibility to destructive influences. The results obtained in the course of the study showed an insignificant difference in the behavior of boys and girls on the Internet and their susceptibility to destructive influences. Young men have a lower level of suggestibility and more criticality to the information received, which makes them difficult objects for destructive influence. The author suggested that young people with a low level of manipulative behavior and a high level of suggestibility are more susceptible to destructive influence, including from the Internet. The author concludes that in order to neutralize the destructive influence of virtual networks in the process of social work in young people, it is necessary to form a number of competencies in the field of media-safe behavior and, above all, sustainable criticality to the negative impact of the destructive segments of modern social networks through a conscious attitude to the information coming from them.