DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM OF A MODERN MEGAPOLIS AS A MECHANISM FOR FORMING THE POLITICAL WORLDVIEW OF RUSSIAN YOUTH

Abstract

The article examines the structural and substantive features of youth political worldview and the functioning of digital ecosystems in the Volga Federal District cities of Ufa, Kazan, and Nizhny Novgorod. It provides a comparative analysis of these cities’ digital environments and assesses the social effectiveness of regional digital solutions. The study shows the uneven development of the digital environment and the internal contradictions of digitalization associated with the costs of digital decisions. Within the study of youth worldview, predictors of satisfaction with digital ecosystems are identified, including assessments of the accessibility and effectiveness of digital infrastructure, as well as perceptions of key problems and contradictions of digitalization. Digital ecosystems have been showing a strong yet contradictory impact on youth political worldviews, marked by a pragmatic and moderately critical assessment of urban digital environments and ambivalent perceptions of digitalization shaped by differing views of technological and administrative solutions. The authors conclude that the costs of implementing digital projects in the studied regions become factors in socio-psychological risks, associated with increased frustrations and deprivations in the minds of young people, as well as the inability to predict the vector of worldview development.