The Communicative Culture Of Adolescents In The Era Of Informatization And Digitalization

Abstract

The article considers the problem of development of communicative culture of adolescents in the context of informatization and digitalization. Various parameters and criteria for assessing the level of a person’s communicative culture are given. The questions of the transformation of the communicative culture of modern adolescents in the virtual communication format are elucidated. The characteristics of low, medium and high levels of development of the communicative culture of adolescents are determined. The modern adolescents' idea of a communicative culture is defined. The informational and the sociocultural approaches were used in the study, which allowed for studying the information sources used by modern adolescents. In the experimental study, the author used the interview method and independent expert evaluations. The survey results are presented in the form of interviews with adolescents, parents and teachers in order to identify their opinions on the level of development of the communicative culture of modern adolescents. The responses of adult respondents and adolescents are compared, summarized and correlated with the results of an online survey, which allowed for determining the real level of development of the communicative culture of adolescents. As a result of the study, deficiencies in the communicative culture (in spelling, acronyms, errors) were revealed. It has been established that teachers, parents and adolescents assess the level of development of the communicative culture of adolescents in different ways and cannot find common ground in resolving the issue of developing a communicative culture, since they have opposite views on this issue.

Keywords: Virtual communicationscommunication diagnosticscommunicative culturecommunication criteriainterpersonal communicationcommunication styles

Introduction

In society, the successes of a person and their self-realization in various types of activities are mainly associated with their ability to establish productive contacts and carry out effective interaction with others in order to achieve personal goals and implement socially significant ideas.

Communication is the main way of interaction between people, of receiving and exchanging information, of self-expression, of the formation of beliefs, worldview, etc. Thus, communication is one of the most important characteristics of a modern person. The formation of an individual as a person, their success in the social, personal and professional spheres largely depend on the effectiveness of the individual's various styles of communication and how they are implemented in various situations.

The works of Makarova (2018), Rud (2008), Bogdanova (2019), Bauman (2015), Chuchkova (2007) and other researchers are dedicated to the theoretical aspects of communicative culture. At the same time, certain differences can be noted both in approaches to the definition of a communicative culture, and in the methods of its diagnosis.

The communicative culture of adolescents largely reflects the main features of national and group communicative behavior; however, it contains certain individual traits that are formed under the influence of hereditary factors, temperament, character, upbringing, intellectual and social development.

In the modern world informational diversity is intensifying, which is associated with increasing streams of diverse information, including scientific and educational nature, modern methods of obtaining and processing it, the significant influence of information sources on the way of thinking, worldview, and the nature of interpersonal and intergenerational communication.

Information diversity is a source of development of social, educational and communication systems on the one hand, but creates a large number of pedagogical problems, on the other hand (Donina, Pevzner, Petriakov, & Shaydorova, 2018).

The communicative behavior of adolescents, as a rule, can be defined as normative and non-normative. Normative behavior includes the behavior and communication style adopted in this environment and observed in standard communicative situations for the most part of the group. Non-normative behavior is defined as behavior violating these standards (Zhichkina, 2018).

After analyzing the works on the assessment of the communicative culture of such scientists as Aleksandrova (2009), Rud (2008), Safonova (2018), the author came to a conclusion that their works reflected different points of view according to the criteria for assessing a communicative culture. Therefore, in the previous study, the author considered the issue of determining the level of communicative culture of adolescents and developed their own evaluation criteria.

Thus, the low level of development of a communicative culture implies that a teenager has superficial ideas of the forms of communication and the characteristics of its organization. Such a person does not have a formed communicative ideal, lacks awareness of the importance of communication in social, personal and professional activities, indicators of communicative tolerance, interactive and perceptual abilities are not well developed. Direct communication causes difficulties for such individuals, which are accompanied by misunderstandings, conflicts, and a lack of understanding.

The average level of development of communicative culture implies the presence of common ideas about the features of interpersonal communication. Such adolescents clearly realize their own position, have a communicative ideal, understand the importance of communication in everyday life and professional activity. They show a sufficient level of development of tolerance, interactive, perceptual abilities, the need for communicative self-improvement. However, non-standard and unexpected communication situations often cause certain difficulties for such a person, however, they are successfully overcome during the implementation of communicative styles and analysis of the situation.

A high level of development of a communicative culture is characteristic for a person with a clear life position based on the principles of humanism, the preservation of honor and dignity, respect for the feelings and needs of others. This category of adolescents has developed a comprehensive idea of the nature, significance and styles of communication, organizational culture, they are aware of and comply with the basic requirements of a culture of speech, communicative tolerance. They have developed communicative, interactive abilities and skills (Nesterov, 2017).

The relevance of the study of the communicative culture of adolescents in the era of digitalization and informatization is due to the following circumstances:

• distribution of a new communication culture in modern society, which limits interpersonal communication and adolescents' immersion in network interaction in virtual space;

• the gap between the communicative culture of the digital generation and the traditional communicative culture, including the culture of thinking, the culture of feelings and the culture of speech;

• the social need for development of a communicative culture of a teenager in the conditions of informatization and digitalization of society and education, and the lack of development of the theory of development of a communicative culture of a digital generation of teenagers and adequate pedagogical tools for this process.

Problem Statement

Modern teachers and parents faced the problem of developing a communicative culture of adolescents in the era of informatization and digitalization, because today communication has changed due to the proliferation of virtual means of communication. Communication is becoming less and less “lively”, real, and more and more “chat”-like, virtual.

Such fundamental characteristics of real communication as length and time are distorted, in addition, virtual communication determines a new way of representing a person, which is reflected in various effects of mediated interpersonal perception and interaction.

Research Questions

The author of the article searches for answers to the following research questions:

• What is the modern adolescents' idea of communicative culture?

• Do adolescents consider their communicative culture to be sufficiently developed and do they have a need for its development?

• Do the assessments of the level of development of the communicative culture of teachers, parents and adolescents coincide?

• Are there deficiencies in the communicative culture (in spelling, acronyms, errors), and also what is the impact of the modern information environment on the level of communicative culture of adolescents?

Purpose of the Study

In this study, the author sets the goal of revealing teenagers' idea of the phenomenon of “communicative culture”, their assessment of the level of development of their own communicative culture and the presence of adolescents’ need for its development.

Research Methods

While conducting this study, the author used an informational approach and a sociocultural approach, which made it possible to study the information sources used by modern adolescents and to define the concept of a communicative culture.

The information approach allowed for focusing on the use of information systems and technologies to obtain information important for managerial and pedagogical decisions.

In the study the author also used independent peer reviews and interview method. For this, several focus groups consisting of parents, teachers and adolescents were identified. The focus groups were asked the same questions regarding the level of development of the communicative culture of modern adolescents, and their need for its development. The interview involved 206 people, including 37 teachers, 67 parents, 102 teenagers from 14 to 17 years old from Veliky Novgorod.

Findings

In the process of research using the focus group method, the goal is to find out the parents', teachers' and students' opinion about the level of development of the communicative culture of adolescents, as well as to determine the true level of communicative culture of modern adolescents using an online survey, and also to compare this result with the opinions of parents, teachers and adolescents themselves.

The survey involved 141 people. As a result of the survey, the opinion of teachers and parents turned out to be similar. 90.78% of respondents considered that the level of communicative culture of modern adolescents is low, and the adolescents need to raise it. Only 6.31% of respondents expressed the opinion that they consider the level of development of the communicative culture of modern adolescents to be sufficiently developed. However, according to the results of interviews with adolescents themselves, it was found that modern adolescents do have an understanding of the phenomenon of “communicative culture” and consider their communicative culture to be sufficiently developed (71.43% of respondents).

To determine the real level of development of the communicative culture of adolescents, the questionnaire, which was sent to respondents through the social network “vk.com”, was developed. The questionnaire was created on the Google Disk platform and consisted of 20 questions. Respondents had to answer the questionnaire, and in accordance with the answers, the author was able to determine what level of communicative culture the respondent had. The survey was attended by respondents aged 14 to 17 years. The study used the online survey method, since the Internet provides anonymity, removes barriers to interaction which due to gender, age, appearance, social status, financial situation. Voluntary communication through a social network makes it possible to disconnect, delete a contact, interrupt communication in case of discomfort. In other words, Internet communication eliminates the need to take responsibility and make informed decisions.

In network communication, an important aspect of communication is limited: physical and emotional interaction with each other. A person cannot touch the interlocutor, hug them, look them in the eye, express their feelings through facial expressions or gestures. Therefore, for research, conducting a survey in a virtual environment was especially important, since for a correct assessment of the level of development of a communicative culture, it is necessary for respondents to respond honestly, without embarrassment or embellishing reality. The respondents' answers were processed using an electronic counting system, which ensured the reliability of the data obtained. As a result of the study, the author came to the conclusion that adolescents actively participate in online surveys (200 adolescents were offered to take the survey, 141 of them agreed and filled out the questionnaire), which is 70.5% in percentage terms.

According to the data obtained, 8 out of 141 adolescents have a high level of development of a communicative culture, which is 5.7% of all respondents, 126 out of 141 adolescents have a medium level of development of a communicative culture, which is 89.3% of all respondents, 7 out of 141 adolescents have a low level of development of communicative culture, which is 5% of all of the respondents (Figure 01 ).

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The study identified some deficiencies in the communicative culture of modern adolescents. For example, it was noted that when writing messages on social networks, teenagers correct words only occasionally, and only those that the automatic editor underlines in red. Teenagers do not correct most of the misspelled words. Also, adolescents noted that they often use abbreviations, as this speeds up the process of writing messages and allows one to communicate with a large number of people at the same time.

According to the results of the online survey, it was found that approximately half of the teenagers surveyed sometimes show aggression towards other Internet users, since the Internet removes barriers to some extent and allows them to behave freely. However, some teenagers noted that they prefer to diversify their virtual communication through audio and video communications, pictures, emoticons, widgets and photos, which indicates a rather high level of communicative culture in a virtual environment. For the majority of respondents, “live” communication and virtual communication have the same value, which indicates that the Internet is firmly entrenched in the lives of modern adolescents and is an integral part of it.

The study revealed a discrepancy between the opinions of adults (parents and teachers) and adolescents regarding the level of development of communicative culture among adolescents. A discrepancy was also traced between expert assessments and the results of the online survey. According to parents and teachers, the level of communication culture of modern adolescents is very low, and it needs to be developed. According to the adolescents themselves, the level of development of their communicative culture is quite high, and therefore they do not feel the need for its further development. According to the results of the online survey, it was found that the majority of adolescents (89.3% of respondents) demonstrate an average level of development of a communicative culture.

Thus, the author concludes that the difference in assessments by different groups of respondents of the level of development of a communicative culture of adolescents indicates the absence of real mechanisms of interaction between all subjects of the pedagogical process aimed at the development of a communicative culture. The search for such mechanisms and means is a problem, and the efforts of both teachers and parents should be directed to the solution of this problem.

Conclusion

The study proved that the level of development of the communicative culture of modern adolescents is not high enough, and teachers, parents and adolescents cannot find common ground in solving the issue of developing a communicative culture, since they have opposite views on this issue. Teenagers are not motivated to develop their communicative culture, since they consider it sufficiently developed, and teachers and parents cannot find mechanisms for interacting with adolescents in modern conditions, since today the communicative culture has greatly changed due to the development of the virtual environment.

Thus, the author proved that the issue of developing a communicative culture in modern adolescents is relevant, and further studies will develop a model for developing a communicative culture of adolescents in the era of informatization and digitalization.

References

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