Ideological Acceleration of Schoolchildren as an Effect of New Media: Formulating the Question

Abstract

The early ideological socialization of schoolchildren is manifested in their increasing involvement in political (including protest) activities. In Russia, school students’ involvement in political processes hasn’t been properly studied, despite similar studies being conducted abroad since the middle of the last century. Meanwhile, in the information age, the students’ political participation should be considered in close connection with the younger generation’s digital socialization carried out in online communities and social networks. In this regard, the purpose of this article is to raise the question of the methodology for studying what until recently seemed insignificant in the minds of schoolchildren: fully formed ideological attitudes influenced by the ideological language of new media. To solve this methodological problem, we need to clarify the concepts of political and ideological socialization projected on the school; formulate the problem of ideological acceleration of schoolchildren; methodologically substantiate the concept of ideological socialization and describe the environment of new media as the main “accelerator” of the schoolchildren’s ideological socialization. The authors note the need for a political study of the issue, using the achievements of interdisciplinary research in the fields of linguistics, cognitive science and ideologies. They propose an approach based on the theory of metaphorical framing (J. Lakoff) and the authors’ concept of cognitive ideological matrices. The authors emphasize that new media act as an intermediary in the formation of cognitiveideological matrices in the individual and group consciousness of schoolchildren, as well as a catalyst for earlier ideological socialization.