Virtual Communication as the Main Format of Social Communication of Young People

The features of the communicative behavior of young people in the network discursive space are considered. The purpose of the study is to assess the characteristic linguistic features of young people in social networks. The research material was the data of a questionnaire aimed at identifying the motives and goals of young people in network communication. About 150 people (students of different faculties and courses) were interviewed. An anonymous survey was conducted by 100 schoolchildren (the age of teenagers ranged from 12 to 17 years). On the youth platforms of the Runet, data from Internet discussions and comments from communication participants are collected. The results of the study showed that the reconstruction of the portrait of the linguistic personality of a young user of social networks is associated with the following factors. Firstly, a special digital linguistic personality is being formed in the Internet space. It acts as a synthesis of a real linguistic personality with its constructed image. It has its own language features. They are revealed in a new vocabulary, modified by the youth itself, slang. A modern student in the context of social networks has a synthesis of two spheres – educational and communicative. The vocabulary of a modern teenager is reduced to simple colloquial expressions, often profanity (obscene words), jargon. The speech of teenagers has become very everyday and real. Most words of modern slang have several features: these are mostly abbreviated and borrowed words. The dynamism of the modern world is reflected in the very frequent use of nouns with event meaning and verbs. Secondly, against this background, the text is increasingly accompanied by illustrations, stickers, emoticons and many others. The importance of social networks for the self-expression of young people is emphasized.