The paper examines a relatively new, actively developing phenomenon called Internet socialization. Although the Internet and communication via the Internet are not surprising for any modern society, social practices on the Internet are undergoing some changes. As in the case of replacing mail with phones, email and some small chats have been replaced by full-fledged social networks, instant messengers and other resources that allow you to communicate extremely conveniently and functionally: send photos, music, videos, documents, and all this happens in real time. Great opportunities have allowed Internet communication to become a full-fledged replacement for conventional communication. However, many authors mistakenly classify online socialization as a rather vague term "Internet addiction" and promote other dubious statements that have nothing to do with reality. A survey was conducted among 200 respondents, which showed that 77.5% of respondents showed no signs of addiction, and extreme addiction was not observed among the respondents at all. At the same time, the possibility of addiction was more typical for guys than for girls. In addition, the difficulties of socialization were studied among young people aged 14 to 22, who are characterized by online socialization and the second group of people who are not. The group of habitual socialization turned out to be significantly better in the behavioral level of socialization, but in the other two levels (cognitive and value) it was slightly inferior to the group of online socialization. The overall level of socialization between the groups was approximately the same. The author concludes that online socialization clearly deserves the attention of researchers.
Данил Андреевич Пистолетов (Mon,) studied this question.