Today, researchers of society - sociologists, psychologists, social philosophers - identify a new driving force in society, an innovative avant-garde, conventionally called "People of the 21st Century"
Of course, virtually all of us are in this, the 21st century - but it turns out that in their ideas about life, in their life maps, a significant part of the population “lags behind”, still continues to strive for the usual way of life, formed decades ago, back in the century 20th And only a small part in their aspirations and plans, in their way of life, corresponds to today's dynamic times.
Do you consider yourself to be “People of the 21st Century”?
Decoding the radio broadcast

On the radio "Moscow Speaks" is the presenter Igor Igorev, as well as Pavel Lebedev, director of the Internet World project of the Public Opinion Foundation and Mark Sandomirsky, psychotherapist

I.I. - Who are the people of the 21st century? How do they live, what are they like? Successful Russians are worried about pervasive corruption, administrative pressure on business and the intellectual degradation of Russia. They understand that the country is deteriorating socio-economically and culturally, but they do not know how to help it, but only state a fact. Among the people who are present on the Internet, that same group of people of the 21st century stands out. These are people who have mastered technology, advanced people. What do they think about themselves?

P.L. – Indeed, the use of information technology is one of the integral features of modern people. However, in this study, by highlighting the people of the 21st century, we understand that some of them do not yet use the Internet. People of the 21st century are people who assimilate new values. Accordingly, they view Russia, their lives, aspirations, and so on through them. However, technology remains important to them. But they, in my opinion, have an instrumental attitude towards technology.

I.I. – All past years passed under the slogan “go abroad.” For quite a long time there was a fascination with the West. And now, in all online communities, successful businessmen, people of the 21st century, believe that this time has passed. Now they are oriented differently. What is this connected with? Since their values ​​have changed, maybe the West did not accept them, and they, offended, went into their hole?

P.L. – In my opinion, two trends are important here at the same time. On the one hand, this is stabilization within the country, on the other hand, the mobilization of people in connection with the crisis. Internal challenges simply reoriented people.

M.S. – In my opinion, on the one hand, life experience plays a role here, the understanding that in the West not only does no one wait for anyone, but also a significant part of those seeking a better life there find themselves in the position of third-class citizens. On the other hand, there is a psychological defense mechanism, the ability to explain what a person cannot do by saying that it is wrong and unnecessary. And what a person has is recognized as necessary and good. You can compare Russia and the West. From a psychological point of view, the ideas in your research about people of the 21st century are a mirror reflection of what Americans call generation Y, generation Z. There is a certain age divide, a boundary between people who were born in the era of computers, the Internet, digital communications, modern technologies , and people whose childhood and youth passed in the pre-Internet era. There is a fundamental difference between them. Even when we pronounce the phrase “people of the 21st century” to some of our radio listeners, this reminds us of what in Soviet times one could hear about how wonderful they would be when heaven on earth came, that is, communism. People of the 21st century are ordinary people who live with us. They simply state the state of affairs that already exists today. People who actively use new information technologies from childhood and adolescence are psychologically different from other generations. In the work of psychologists, different generations of fathers and children in the computer sense are called digital natives and digital migrants. These are people who live digitally all the time and people who are over 40 years old. For them, new technologies are something attracted later in their lives. Even the usual way the brain functions is different for both. Young people of the digital generation, people of the 21st century, are more rational, more logical, and somewhat less emotional. So they plan their lives. Your research shows that people, in addition to the active use of new technologies, are distinguished by their inclinations towards financial planning, planning their lives, a reasonable attitude towards their health, and the search for a new desire for various kinds of changes, accomplishments, and innovations in life.

I.I. – This is the middle class, which is not called, but is present. He is called people of the 21st century. What's innovative about the fact that these people are using new technology, what's new about the consumer base that we have now? They invent their own lives. And too widespread use of the Internet suggests that life is constantly changing. Progress is constantly being made, but nothing has changed in the country for centuries. It seems that there is growth, a person is constantly moving, improving. But this is only superficial, this does not happen in life, all this remains only in the virtual world. Perhaps this is where the main mistake in understanding people of the 21st century lies?

P.L. – In my opinion, when we talk about people of the 21st century, we must understand that people before that were people of the 20th century, the 19th century. There has always been an active, innovative group of people pushing everyday life forward, trying to achieve something, pulling the rest of society with them. But we must understand that technologies, which are largely virtual, are already heavily immersed in reality. The confrontation between the real and the virtual, in my opinion, is decreasing every day. All this is so close to real human experience that it is no longer possible to separate them.

M.S. – All the changes in people’s lifestyles, in their views and values ​​that we are now observing naturally follow from the fact that the way society is organized is changing. We are talking about economics and production. We live in a time of scientific and technological revolution. Society is moving from the so-called industrial to a post-industrial or information society. True, in some countries, for example, in the United States of America and Europe, this transition has already occurred, and we are standing on its threshold. You mentioned the middle class. People of the 21st century are the new middle class. Its change clearly shows how all this happened. About 50 years ago, the people of today's middle class were small property owners. It was a pillar of society interested in stability. Then ideas about the middle class changed. 30-40 years ago the marketing approach became the main thing. Then it began to be believed that the middle class were people who had an income level that was higher than that of the low-income, but did not allow them to reach the upper strata. Who became the middle class? These are the people who are representatives of the most in-demand professions. They are related not to production, not to agriculture, but to information. We are talking about the computer, the Internet, processing numbers in different ways.

I.I. – When such a person goes to a drilling rig, nothing works out for him, there is no signal, one message is sent for 2 hours. This is how the middle class ends. This remains only in megacities, in civilization. If you move away a little, nothing is caught.

P.L. – You are right, so far this is so. But from this point of view, little is changing in our economy, production, or social sphere. But with regard to information technology and communications, everything is changing quickly. There are no fundamental problems or difficulties here. Let's return to how people in Soviet times imagined the future. The words that the current generation of people will live under communism, spoken 50 years ago, have not come true. But there were also words that the current generation of people will live in a period of singularity. This time is just around the corner; computers will become smarter than humans. Everything is moving towards this, technology is developing very quickly. The changes that occur in consciousness and behavior reflect this process.

I.I. - Why is this happening? What are these people offering? They sit on Odnoklassniki and don’t like anything else.

M.S. “It’s not that they don’t know how to help the country.” As our research shows, they are trying to start changing the world from themselves, helping themselves and their neighbors. Making a small contribution to the development of society and their environment, they record a large number of social problems. Among them, they most often point to problems related to the development of the economy, society, the fight against corruption, and so on. These are problems that, according to the population, are very significant. These people are aimed at some achievements, they are active. They start with themselves because it’s easier for them to change something.

P.L. – This is only one side of the coin. The new generation of people of the 21st century, the new middle class, the information society, along with advantages, also has characteristic features that can be called disadvantages. On the one hand, they are more practical, on the other hand, they are more individualistic. They more clearly apply the principle that every man is for himself. That's why they all start with themselves. From their point of view, it is unrealistic to do anything. This point of view is the prevailing one. They have a slightly different desire for knowledge. On the one hand, there is a constant thirst for new things, searching for information on the Internet. But the more this information accumulates in our information age, the more the information itself becomes devalued.

(Listen to interview details

Anna Toporkova | 26 December 2015

OverviewKeeping Eyes

Modern man. Who is he? What does he want from life? What does he believe in? How is he different from the people who lived before him?

In the 21st century, people have a huge number of different opportunities: thanks to the Internet, we can do things that our ancestors never dreamed of. Think about it, could people dream of being able to hear and see their friends located on the other side of the Earth, and to have access to the necessary information at any time? For us this has already become commonplace. We are dependent on our gadgets, without which we feel unprotected and helpless. Live communication is gradually fading away; indeed, it’s easier to write to your neighbor from the third floor than to climb an entire floor! In some cases, online communication can be a great help, but you can’t limit yourself to it. Is it more pleasant to look at an emotionless screen or at a friend’s joyful smile? The choice is quite simple, but for some reason most people prefer option 1.

You can write whatever your heart desires. What you wouldn’t dare say in a personal conversation won’t seem so wild on the Internet. Unfortunately, the reality is that the Internet is turning us into zombies who are only able to express their opinions on social networks. The tragedy of modern man is Internet addiction and, as a consequence, the extinction of individuality.

A culture of speech. Lack of literacy and, worst of all, the desire for it. What for? We have auto-correction! But our gadgets cannot correct spoken language! Therefore, read books, articles written competently and concisely, listen to the radio (and not just songs), write real paper letters to friends living far away (this is doubly pleasant for them and useful for you). Competent speech is your calling card; hardly anyone will like it if you distort your words. Your speech can create a favorable (or not so favorable) impression, which is difficult to change later (as practice shows).

What comes first for people now? Family? No. Career? Yes, but not really. Money? Yes!

It’s amazing how much the syndrome of thirst for material goods has worsened recently. The primary role in choosing a profession is given to salary. Of course, this is important, but how can you build your future according to the principle: I work where they pay more? A well-paying job is great, but a job you love is much better! First of all, you need to choose what your soul strives for, then it will bring twice as much pleasure (and money, by the way). An unhappy person is one who minds his own business. How can you do something you hate every day? These are some kind of executions!

We are gradually forgetting our history. And why all? The love for American films, the lack of good history teachers, the reluctance to teach this subject (which is natural: who would have the desire to teach something that cannot be properly taught to us) destroys in us the need to know our roots. Reading Russian classics is also gradually fading away, but they describe the main events of Russian history, and they are described in incredibly interesting ways! Have you ever wondered why this or that work is called the cultural heritage of Russia? Not just like that! And this stupid stereotype: supposedly what is called a classic is endlessly tedious and boring. It's just a reason not to read. You need to overcome this prejudice and sit down with a good book!

There is a revaluation of values. Of course, this process began a long time ago, but it seems to me that we saw it so clearly and clearly only in the 21st century. People put career above family, prefer money to friendship, online communication to live communication, and look for benefits in everything. Insincerity and self-interest spread with amazing speed. And the worst thing is that you and I simply don’t see all this, thinking that it will affect us and bypass us. But look at your friends. Look at yourself. What motivates you when you perform this or that action?

In modern society, the position of the human body as an object of study for many sciences is strengthening: anatomy, biology, physiology, genetics, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, cultural studies.

Unlike all other historical periods, when almost the only ways of understanding the body were contemplation and touch, penetration into the molecular and genetic levels of functioning is now possible.

On the one hand, the human body ceases to be a mystery: it is practically “in the palm of the hand” of scientists - under a microscope, in a tomograph, under X-rays.

On the other hand, the question of the relationship between the body and the psyche, the body and society with its norms and rules, the individual body and the collective body remains open and debatable.

Now the body is not only an object of commercial and consumer interest, but also a sphere of application of efforts to maintain health, physical fitness, and external attractiveness.

The beauty and fashion industries around the world invest heavily in promoting “role models”: images of “reference” appearance.

In this regard, various procedures aimed at improving appearance are becoming increasingly popular.

Any intervention and violation of the integrity of the body, voluntary or unwanted, has a strong impact on the safety of the individual’s psyche.

The development and implementation of innovative technologies in theoretical and practical medicine gives rise to complex philosophical and ethical problems: the status of the embryo and the cloned body, genetic experiments to create “ideal people”, artificial cultivation and transplantation of organs, death and euthanasia.

Modern society should comprehend in a new context various philosophical issues relating to the body, consciousness, and self-identity.

The age of information technology has confronted humanity with the consideration of one of the most objective and pressing problems - the informatization of the body.

According to scientist and artificial intelligence theorist Ray Kurzweil, “By the end of the 21st century, the clear distinction between humans and robots will be lost.

After all, what is the difference between a human being who has improved his body and brain through computing and nanotechnology, and a robot who is superior in intelligence and sensitivity to his human creators?

The theories of information space and artificial intelligence lead, according to M.N. Epstein, to the deactivation of the body - “semiotization and devitalization, treating the body as an information machine capable of simulating any biological functions and surpassing nature in this.”

If in the Middle Ages the distance from the body was due to a shift of attention to the spiritual component, and during the Renaissance the body was perceived as a mechanism, then in the modern world similar processes are a product of the development of information technology, the transition to life in cyberspace.

The so-called perspective of post-corporeal civilization poses precisely the task of value-semantic preservation of the human body and appearance for philosophy.

Thus, in modern science and public consciousness the body can be analyzed in the following contexts: as a subject of informational or biogenetic decoding and transformation; as an object of worship and imitation, trade and professional activity.

The appearance of the human body is initially determined by genetic information transmitted from parents and is as individual as possible.

That is, appearance is the very first and obvious individualizing sign.

Each person has the power to influence their appearance in a certain way using various procedures.

The motivation for such actions is multifaceted: to express characteristic personality traits; define oneself in relation to a social or religious group; achieve respect and acceptance; meet the standards of beauty and attractiveness.

The attitude towards human corporeality is a question that has tormented the minds of philosophers, cultural scientists, psychologists, historians, and anthropologists for thousands of years.

We can say that the human body, as a special object of scientific and public interest, has come a long way, having experienced humiliation, exaltation, and standardization.

If philosophers, cultural scientists, historians and artists turned to beauty quite often and, accordingly, it is quite simple to trace the history of aesthetic thought, then the situation with ugliness is more complicated - it was always mentioned in passing, reluctantly.

Therefore, it is assumed that the history of ugliness has something in common with the history of beauty, because they can be seen as two sides of the same coin.

The concepts of beauty and ugliness are defined in relation to a specific culture and a specific historical period.

Moreover, no matter how ideas regarding times and cultures changed, people’s minds were absorbed by the idea of ​​finding a common denominator - defining the beautiful and the ugly in relation to the unchanged eternal model.

However, research in the field of psychology of appearance and beauty has brought unusual results: in the modern world, despite the replicated standards of external attractiveness, there are no objective ideals, there are only subjective ideas of specific people.

With the advent of the third millennium and the 21st century, our planet has entered another, new stage of civilizational processes and scientific and technological revolution. Of course, at first glance, such a phenomenon is characteristic and is caused, first of all, by the historical circumstances of the time, which form the system of a new worldview over the years, with the change of centuries and millennia. This ability to improve indicates that a person progresses in his development at each period of time and thus becomes the creator of the world around him in which he lives, establishes new laws, does not adhere to these new laws, gives birth to a new generation and ultimately dies naturally. This pattern should suit every person, provided that there is not a single encroachment on the right to peaceful and safe coexistence. But, as we see, recently in the world community of the 21st century, absolutely opposite processes have been observed; processes that each time are less and less harmonized and coincide with the laws of nature, human morality and even the Almighty.

The rapid development of the latest computer technologies, science, and technology has made human life on Earth much easier: it completely replaced manual labor, which had prevailed for centuries, with labor of a technical nature, when the same hands produced means that accelerated the production of necessary products. Modern man does not need to “manually” cultivate the land, produce fire and fuel, sew clothes and design vehicles. Once upon a time, in the old days, the invention of a hot air balloon, airplane, train, car, telephone, radio and television was something extraordinary, incomprehensible, amazing. Now all these things have become so integrated into everyone’s everyday life that we don’t even notice them around us. There is only one reason - humanity has turned a new page in history, where material and technical values ​​have become widely popular, and such things as morality, faith, love and peace fade into the background. Man of the 21st century is identified with mass computerization and armament, cloning, the development of terrorism, material enrichment, the thirst for power and war. What should we expect after a hundred years of this way of life? The answer is clear: man will destroy himself and all life on the planet with his own hands!

We stopped reading books, visiting libraries, museums, theaters and cinemas, we forgot about real, natural human feelings and emotions. We have replaced all this with the computer and the Internet, with which we spend most of our lives; We don’t know what real live communication with a person is, real sensations from reading a book in the original, and not on display, from watching a play or movie. This is not noticeable to the naked eye, but a person degrades in his cultural and spiritual development, completely merges with the technogenic sphere and exchanges his mind, soul and heart for the so-called “electronic surrogate”, which thinks and feels instead. Soon we will turn into robots or zombies, capable only of perceiving and not comprehending information. In this case, human civilization is predetermined for extinction if it does not have time to reflect on its actions and fails to successfully combine the best intellectual and spiritual needs.

Recently, the demand of American medical scientists to legitimize and legalize human cloning has become widely publicized. I am very glad that it did not find support from the American president and was received very ambiguously by the world community. The powers that be, represented by foreign scientists, are once again trying to sow hostility between the church and science. If we even partially allow such an invention as cloning to progress, we will expose ourselves to fatal danger. The essence of this danger is very simple: the fact of the natural appearance of man is gradually receding into the background, faith in the Almighty is disappearing, a wave of atheism is spreading among society, and experiments in cloning famous historical figures will cause the threat of interethnic and racial conflicts.

Now no one is surprised when they once again hear on radio and television or read on the pages of newspapers news reports about mass terrorist attacks in various parts of the world. The words “terrorism”, “weapons”, “bloodshed” and “war” become topics of conversation not only in the narrow circles of the political elite, but are also vigorously discussed in society. The events of September 11, 2001 in the United States significantly contributed to changes in the political atmosphere of the world and once again proved that not a single state in the world, regardless of its military or economic power, is safe in the face of terror. A person driven by the thirst for power and wealth will stop at nothing, he takes up arms and goes to brutally kill other people. Even faith in higher heavenly powers does not stop such people, as evidenced by military conflicts on the “sacred land” - in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. But, as we see, no steps are being taken in the fight against the militarization of the world by the superpowers. The United States, which felt the evil of terror “on its own nation,” continues to pursue an aggressive diplomatic policy towards Russia and the countries of the Middle East. The thousands of innocent lives lost during the military anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan will never serve as an excuse for the American people and will never be a means of eradicating war sentiments in the world.

If we continue to allow material values ​​to prevail over cultural and spiritual ideals, then the portrait of a person in the 21st century will not change. He will forever forget about peace and harmony, about goodness and love, about faith and hope, he will perish, disappear from the face of the Earth. He will do it with his own hands!

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A person's life changes every day. Innovative technologies are constantly being created, discoveries are being made, and new information is emerging. In a word, time moves forward. And life also does not stand still.

That is why those skills and abilities that were useful to a person several decades (not to mention centuries) ago, now not only turn out to be completely unnecessary, but lose their value and relevance against the backdrop of the modern rhythm and living conditions. There are, of course, skills that are useful to a person at any time and, so to speak, in any world, for example, the ability to communicate, or, and. But then we will talk about exactly those skills that any person must possess if he intends to develop, be successful, achieve goals and live a harmonious, comfortable and fulfilling life in the modern world.

Prologue

Today it is almost impossible to imagine that our mothers and fathers did not yet know what a laptop computer is or how you can communicate with a person located on another continent using a cell phone. We, in turn, react with a kind smile when we are told that a letter could take several weeks to reach its addressee, or we shake our heads when we hear how someone developed photographs in a dark room under the light of red lamps and using some kind of chemical solution. It’s really hard to believe, but all this was the reality of people just 20-30 years ago. And today’s reality, if our grandmothers saw it on TV, would be perceived by them as something fantastic and absolutely unreal.

If you try to look at the presented topic from a more practical point of view, then you can be quite puzzled and provide yourself with food for thought for a long time. For example, where should you go to study and what profession should you choose in order to be sure that “tomorrow” it will not turn out to be irrelevant and unnecessary? What kind of education should you give your children and how to raise them so that they can achieve success and become full-fledged members of society when they grow up?

These and many other similar questions can be called simply burning questions today, because... The quality of our life as a whole depends on the answers to them. And, if we are practitioners, not theorists, if we want to be those who are really able to achieve something, then we must be flexible, and for this we need to start mastering new skills that will be modern over at least the next few decades and quite possibly even longer.

But what should we focus on so as not to get into trouble? What will allow us to harmonize with an ever-changing world? According to respected experts on the future of technology from the Institute of the Future (IFTF), located in Palo Alto (California, USA), there are six dominant factors that will influence changes in the world in the future:

• Increased life expectancy
• The era of global development of computer technology
• Computational World
• Latest developments in media
• Organizations with a superstructure
• Globalization

It is these factors that determine the complex of new skills that a person needs to master in the present 21st century.

21st century human skills

So, there are only ten basic skills that a modern person needs to devote time to mastering.

Ability to select information

As people's lives develop and change, an increasing amount of information “noise” will appear. For this reason, it is very important and necessary to learn how to filter incoming information, extract from its huge flow only what is really important, and weed out everything that is secondary and second-rate. This skill involves working specifically on the mental perception of processed information, which makes possible the successful development of a person at the social level.

Ability to think outside the box and flexibly

Nowadays, the most effective solutions to many problems can be found only outside the boundaries of any system. If a person knows how to think outside the box, as well as adapt to changing conditions, he can most productively resolve issues of absolutely any complexity, and find positive aspects even in the most seemingly hopeless situations.

Ability to understand meanings

If you compare a person, for example, with a mechanism, it will not be difficult to notice that the mechanism does not have the ability to understand the hidden meanings, subtexts and multiple meanings of the message it receives. A person, in turn, is able to develop the ability to recognize many “pitfalls” when interacting with other people, as well as draw the right conclusions based on the scanty amount of information received.

Social intelligence

Social intelligence, as a quality, will have even greater value than IQ. Well-developed communication skills can be considered a guarantee that a person will be able not only to create the most suitable environment around himself, but also. By skillfully separating the various manifestations of other people, such as, for example, tone, mood or, it is possible repeatedly.

Ability to work with modern media

It's no secret that nowadays websites called blogs are already considered full-fledged mass media. Also, social networks, along with them, are the space where people communicate, and not only for entertainment or business, but also for business. Mastering modern media offers a person a wide range of opportunities, from meeting new people and searching for information to concluding deals, communicating with clients, etc.

Versatility of skills and

Today, being a professional in any one direction is no longer enough. The main and main task of a person today and in the near future should be, because... People who are multi-faceted will have the greatest value. In addition, such people are more practical, because they can approach solving even one problem from many angles, and are also able to establish contacts and find a common language with professionals in other fields.

Ability to think projectively

This skill represents the ability and process of achieving them from the initial to the final stage, as well as the ability to organize all the resources that are available to achieve the desired result. In addition, the ability to think projectively requires a person to be able to set tasks in a simple form and interact in the process of implementing plans with many different contexts. This also includes skill.

Ability to calculate

The human ability to process large volumes of information and determine its reliability and significance in each individual case is becoming increasingly relevant. In the modern world, every day a colossal amount of all kinds of data appears, which a person should be able to reduce to simple and clear algorithms of action.

Collaboration in virtual space

It is easy to notice that now there is an increasing number of employees from different companies and organizations. And of great importance in all this is the ability of a person, as well as organizations themselves, to organize the process of remote work and cooperation with other people and organizations in the virtual space of the Internet.

Intercultural competence

As before, a person's knowledge of one or more is a very useful skill. But now this is not enough - nowadays, for the most productive and effective interaction with people of other countries, you already need to be familiar with their culture, traditions, customs, ethical and moral standards. In addition, workers of different nationalities can now be found even within the same company, which is why intercultural competence is even more relevant.

In conclusion, we can say that many people do not make any effort to learn new skills and abilities. They are guided by not very correct arguments, thinking that the future is still far away, and for now they can make do with what they have. In reality, the future is already very close - it could come as early as tomorrow. Therefore, do not delay until it is too late. Now you have every chance to step into a new day with the skills that will come in handy.