Millennials: Russian and European Versions

Abstract

The author of article writes about Millennials – the first digital generation in modern Russia, taking as a material for own reflections a recent interdisciplinary study by sociologist and Professor of the Higher school of Economics V.V. Radaev. In solidarity with the author of the book, this article also focused on those socio-cultural and time parameters that first of all caused and now have already formed the fundamental differences in the way of life of Millennials of our country from previous generations: it is primarily about the information/post-industrial paradigm that dominates in modern society, new educational technologies, as well as tolerance and choice as the basic coordinates of growing up at the beginning of the third Millennium. Reflections on the specifics of Russian «new adults» are inseparable from the controversy with the researcher on issues related to the ratio of classical and electronic education, as well as the degree of difference between the Russian youth of the first quarter of the XXI century from their Western peers. In a com- parative aspect the article also analyzes the differences in value orientations and behavioral strate- gies inherent in Russian and European Millennials.

Keywords

• millennials
• russia
• europe
• information society
• digital everyday life of the third millennium
• the problem of choice
• contradictions of educational technologies