Abstract
This article substantiates the effectiveness of applied sociology methods for analyzing the development of professional competencies in young scientists, the most important of which currently include skills in working with information in the digital space, as well as an understanding of the fundamentals of digital culture and ethics. It highlights the aspects of the problem under consideration that determine its relevance: socio-political, philosophical and ideological, educational, communicative, and technological. This article presents an analysis of the results of a postgraduate survey conducted in the form of ‘question-based essays’. This survey type was chosen due to its productivity, which increases when analyzing the development of the professional competencies of future specialists who have chosen science as a profession. The parsing of the results revealed not only strengths but also ideological gaps in understanding key aspects of digital reality: ontological, epistemological, social, and anthropological. It was found that graduate students represent different generational groups (X, Y, and Z) interpreting the phenomenon of digital culture differently. The need to take into account the productive-reproductive and generative nature of the creative activity of the ‘zoomer’ generation, the multichannel nature of their perception, the ability to multitask and the ability to quickly work with information is demonstrated when training highly qualified personnel.
Keywords
- applied sociology
- personnel training
- young scientists
- digital ethics
- essays
- generational theory
- methodology of social cognition
References
Viktoruk, E.N., Mineev, V.V., Artemyeva S.I. Digitalization of Education: A Socio-Pedagogical Experiment from a Socio-Philosophical Perspective. Nauchnie issledovaniia i razrabotki. Socialno-gumanitarnye issledovaniia i technologii. 2020. V. 9. No. 4. Pp. 15–19.
Viktoruk, E.N., Mineev, V.V., Chernyaeva, A.S. The educational potential of applied sociology: from the experience of the laboratory of applied and practical ethics. Socialno-ekonomocheskoe upravlenie: theoriia i praktika. 2024. V. 20. No. 4. Pp. 72–80.
Garmanova, O.V. Application of the essay method in studying ideas about the profession of employees of internal affairs bodies. Pedagogicheskii zhyrnal. 2021. V. 11. No. 5А. Pp. 629–635. https://doi.org/10.34670/AR.2021.40.19.024
Grimov, O.A. Digital reality: social ontology and methodology of empirical study. Slozhnost’. Razum. Postneklassika. 2019. No. 3. Pp. 42–50. URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/tsifrovaya-realnost-sotsialnaya-ontologiya-i-metodologiya-empiricheskogo-izucheniya
Erokhina, P.V. Value orientations of scientists in the system of social determination of science: dissertation abstract. Chelyabinsk, 2025. 24 p.
Astafieva, O.N., Zubanova, N.B., etc. The Information Age: New Paradigms of Culture and Education: Monograph. Ekaterinburg, 2019. 292 p.
Kolomeets, T.V. Homo digitalis. Natsional’nye prioritety Rossii. 2019. No. 2 (33). Pp. 70–74. URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/homo-digitalis-chelovek-tsifrovoy
Martishina, N.I., Postnikov, P.M. Philosophical foundations of the theory of generations. Aktual’nye problemy modernizatsii vysshei shkoly: obrazovanie dlia novogo pokoleniia: materialy XXXVI Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii. Novosibirsk, 2025. Pp. 153–159.
The Newest Philosophical Dictionary. Moscow, 2001. 1279 p.
Pischik, V.I. Typological and identification characteristics of generations. Rossiiskii psychologicheskii zhurnal. 2018. V. 15, No. 2. Pp. 215–236.
Przhilenskii, V.I. Constructing Digital Reality: Intellectual versus Social. Vestnik Rossiiskogo universiteta druzhby narodov. Seriia Philosophiia. 2021. V. 25. No. 4. Pp. 668–682. https://doi.org/10.22363/2313-2302-2021-25-4-668-682.
Radaev, V. Millennials: How Russian Society Is Changing. Moscow, 2023. 296 p.
Chernova, Zh.V. Methodological aspects of expert interviews: approaches, possibilities and limitations. Monitoring. 2023. No. 5 (177). URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/metodologicheskie-aspekty-ekspertnyh-intervyu-podhody-vozmozhnosti-i-ogranicheniya
Shamis, E., Nikonov, E. Generational Theory: The Extraordinary X. Moscow, 2020. 192 p.
Iakovleva, A.F., Selezneva, A.V., Emelianova, N.N. The image of science in the minds of young scientists: sociocultural dimensions. ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Iss. 4 (26). Pp. 194–213. https://doi.org/10.23951/2312-7899-2020-4-194-213
Bluteau, J.M. Legitimising digital anthropology through immersive cohabitation: Becoming an observing participant in a blended digital landscape. Ethnography. 2021. 22 (2). Pp. 267–285. https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138119881165 (In Eng.)
Bennis, M. Cyber Anthropology and the Construction of Online Identities and Memories: A Theoretical Framework. International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR). 2023. 12 (3). Pp. 1508–1515. https://doi.org/10.21275/SR23325032055. URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380708199_Cyber_Anthropology_and_the_Construction_of_Online_Identities_and_Memories_A_Theoretical_Framework (In Eng.)
Weber, G.W. & Bookstein, F.L. Virtual Anthropology: A Guide to a New Interdisciplinary Field. Springer. 2011. 308 p. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-49347-2_1 (in Eng.)