Subculture of Childhood in the Information Space: Features of the "Picture of the World"

The subject of the research is the features of the "picture of the world" of the subculture of childhood in the information space. In the age of accelerated development of network communication technologies, this research topic is extremely relevant. After all, the development of the subculture of childhood in the information space and the emergence of new features of the "picture of the world" formed by the younger generation lead to certain socio-cultural consequences. The purpose of the work is to analyze the transformation of the subculture of childhood in the information space and identify the main features of the "worldview" of its typical representative. The interdisciplinary nature of the research determines the methodology of philosophical-cultural, structural-functional and sociological approaches. The scientific novelty of the study is that it reflects the main functions of the subculture of childhood in the information environment, which differ from the series of functional features previously presented in research papers. In particular, two cardinally new functions have been identified and justified – linguomaking and symbolizing, previously not found in other scientific works. The study also revealed differences between subsets of "children's subculture" and "childhood subculture", considered by most researchers of these phenomena as synonymous. The author's special contribution to the research of the topic is the formulation of a verbal portrait of a typical representative of the modern subculture of childhood, forecasting the further development of the phenomenon in the information space and the level of influence of its sub-formations on the forms of dominant culture and its orthodox representatives.