Social Networks in Russia
Negative Community in a Unnetworked Society
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Social networks in Russia seem to be a copy of western role models. In fact, they are a product and reflex of post-Soviet reality. The Internet has become a forum of ideological manipulation. Its main function is to produce hedonistic conformism. Seen politically, social networks are less a place of individual freedom than one of power and discipline. Users conform to orders and codes and thus internalise behavioural models. In Russia, social networks reflect a lack of solidarity in life offline. In a society that is marked by negative construction of identity – the result of discredited values and widespread cynicism – the community in social networks too often assumes the character of a negative community as well.
(Osteuropa 11/2010, pp. 29–42)