Material Security as a Digital Inequality Factor Among Russian Youth

The Internet has become an integral part of modern life. New opportunities have appeared for disseminating, storing, and exchanging information, accelerating communication, and implementing new social practices. At the same time the Internet has increased social inequality. The article problematizes the issue of the digital technologies spread negative consequences in terms of their development and use by the population with different levels of financial security. The work’s purpose is to analyze how the factor of Russian young people’s financial security affects their subjective assessments of digital competence and their online practices. The analysis source was the data of young people’s sociological survey. It was established as a study result that digital inequality, due to the level of young people’s socio-economic status, creates a specific style of information technology products consumption. One of the effective ways to study is to analyze the subjective level of digital competence and practices of the Internet use. Representatives of the younger generation with high financial wealth demonstrate a more extensive involvement in the Internet space. Thanks to this, they acquire social connections, and more actively build up social, educational, and cultural capital. Young people with a low level of financial security find themselves in an unequal situation. The digital divide is driving new social inequality forms among young people based on their income levels.