Transforming the reading preferences of today’s youth in the digital age: Intercultural dialog

Abstract

The article deals with the transformation of readers’ preferences and the formation of a “new reader” at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. In the study, the authors draw attention to the shift in the priority of the format of youth reading in favor of digital, to the loss of the former role of libraries as centers of non-formal education, as well as to the need to provide assistance to children and young people on the part of “teacher of literature”. An international study undertaken in Russia, the U.S., and the Czech Republic touches upon socio-cultural changes that influenced the reading process among the youth of these countries and the particular interest of the analyzed age group in the fantasy genre, which indicates a change in the reading preferences of young people and the need for understanding this process both in theoretical aspects and taking into account the results of empirical research. The authors conclude that it is advisable to determine the scale of values of a modern person by means of literary pedagogy, to bring it to a common denominator in the intercultural space. As the leading genre of revealed reader preferences, fantasy is becoming a multimedia phenomenon and is shifting the age boundaries of potential readers around the world.