The ‘Fixed Points’ of the Interdisciplinary Reflection of the Problems of Influence of New Media on Consciousness and Behavior of Young People

Abstract

The present article deals with the semantic analysis of the scientific discourse at the International Academic and Practical Internet Conference ‘Connect-Universum-2012’ (May,
29–31, 2012) which theme was ‘Influence of New Media on Consciousness and Behavior of Young People’. Researchers from 13 countries participated in this Conference in the format of webinar, organized by the Department of Social Communication at National Research Tomsk State University (http://connect-universum.com/). New media become extremely attractive to the young people and practically are one of the most effective ways of self-expression, ‘extension of the sense organs’ (Marshall McLuhan) in the process of electronic communication. However their rising popularity, causing drawing into online communication a huge number of young people, has both positive and negative consequences for participants of the communication and for the society in general. The participants of the conference, representing different spheres of scientific knowledge, schools, and socio-cultural practices, discussed diverse and controversial potential of the new media from the point of their influence on youth’s consciousness and behavior. The author determines major ‘fixed points’ of the discourse and formulates its midline results theses) which help to understand the stage the scientific society is standing on in realizing and studying the issue. Some of the theses contradict each other and it can be explained. The existence of the alternative positions is not just the result of applying the principle of pluralism and the ‘law of necessary variety’. It is also the condition for keeping the ‘productive imbalance’ of the scientific discourse on new media now and in the future.