Features of gifted teenagers’ representations of a person in a digital society

Abstract

Background. Subjective representations mediate people’s perception and comprehension of the world, influencing their activity and behavior. The study analyzes the subjective representations of modern teenagers about a person in a digital society, which are of great importance for their socialization and life plans. Objective. To study the specifics of representations of a person in a digital society in the gifted adolescents compared to those of their normotypic peers. Study Participants. 110 students of grades 7–10 aged 13–16 years (m. = 57, f. = 53), including 56 schoolchildren selected by the Center for gifted children support “Strategy” in Lipetsk for their achievements in physics and math and 54 pupils of general education schools in Moscow. Methods. Data collection was carried out using the modified projective technique “Bubbles”. Results. It is shown that intellectually gifted adolescents are significantly more likely than their normotypic peers to endow a person of a digital society with intellectual, motivational, and professional characteristics, describing him as intelligent, educated, purposeful, with high level of digital literacy, able to use the latest technologies, whereas normotypic adolescents are significantly more likely to characterize him in terms of external features: clothing, physique and lifestyle, describing him as fashionable, athletic or, on the contrary, untidy, fond of playing computer games, walking, etc. It was also found that gifted teenagers are significantly more likely than their peers to describe a person in a digital society as lonely and friendless. Conclusions. The gifted teenagers’ representations of a person in a digital society are more diverse, meaningful, and differentiated than those of their normotypic peers, and are also characterized by meaningful features. The data analysis allowed to identify a “problem area” specific for the gifted adolescents, indicating their experience of loneliness and difficulties in communicating and finding friends, deficits in carrying out their leading activities.

Keywords

• subjective representations
• person in a digital society
• gifted teenagers