The Sources and Practice of Economic Activity of Young People in Social Networks

Abstract

The spread of new types of economic activity of young people in social networks is closely related to the growth of information and communication technologies and the formation of the digital economy, with the development and implementation of a large number of innovations. The paper investigates the factors of development and the consequences of the economic activity of young people (freelancers) on the Internet, in social network "VKontakte". The relevance of the research problem coheres with the fact that the implementation of the national program "Digital economy of the Russian Federation" is based not only on economic indicators of digital economy growth (indicators are published annually in the statistics digests of the Institute of Statistic Studies and Economics of Knowledge and the National Research University "Higher School of Economics"). The national program also takes into consideration sociological research of new forms of economic activity of young people, which raises many research problems further outlined. What is the motivation behind the formation of new practices? What are the challenges young people face using social networks for their economic activity? Probably, the most important issue is discovering the specifics of the economic behavior of young people using the opportunities of the digital economy. The article draws an inference concerning the correlation between new practices of economic behavior and the intensification of economic activity of young people.