Specifics of the Risks of the Country’s Humanitarian Security Associated With the Peculiarities of Students’ Perception of Modern Technological Innovations

Objective of the study is to identify and describe the main risks of humanitarian security associated with the digital transformation of Belarusian society and its ambiguous consequences. The article shows that any decrease in the educational and ideological influence within the higher education institutions as well as a decrease of studying social and humanitarian disciplines may lead to underestimation by young people of the cultural values of their society, an increase in their alienation from the middle and older generations in our society. The methodological basis of the research of the research contains the theory of digital transformation of society and the 4th industrial revolution (M. Castells, K. Schwab), the theory of the "risk society" (U. Beck, O. Yanitsky), including its application to the younger generation (Yu. Zubok); the theory of the "knowledge society" (N. Stehr) and the concept of digitalization of society and education (P. Norris, A. Verbitsky). Results of the study show that the innovative process of digital transformation is complex and contradictory, and its social consequences are ambivalent. The students do not always understand how many risks and threats can be associated with the digitalization of various spheres of life, including education. They count on future career advancement due to knowledge of digital technologies, on expanding leisure opportunities and increasing freedom of action. They do not think about the negative impact of digital technologies on health, the environment, and lifestyle. Absolutization of the positive opportunities of digital transformation has a dark side, which consists in a misunderstanding of digital and other risks of modern technological innovations, an underestimation of the humanitarian values of society, and the unintentional formation of a technocratic worldview. Research рerspectives relate to the problem of humanitarian security risks of the country's younger generation associated with the controversial development of digital transformation. They also assume the theoretical development of the concept of modern risks to society in the face of new challenges, as well as in collecting new empirical material that would allow assessing these risks for each social groups of society in dynamics.