ИСТИНА

Addressing the question of youth media consumption, the author paid special attention to the correlation between teenagers’ interest in social networks and age-related needs of this audience. The study poses the following research questions: RQ1: What makes teenagers turn to social networks? RQ2: What psychological needs of teenagers can be satisfied with the help of social media? RQ3: How teenagers draw a line between the real and the virtual worlds and do these boundaries exist for them at all? RQ4: Would it be fair to say that many traditional social practices of young people have completely shifted to the Net? The paper presents an attempt to propose draft answers to these questions based on the analysis of theoretical literature in media psychology. The analysis has allowed to identify a number of typical needs of the teenage audience, such as the desire to obtain knowledge, pursuit of communication and grouping with peers, interest to «try on» various social roles, formation on one’s self-concept, and others that might be addressed with the help of social media. Thus, the ample opportunities for the implementation of these fundamental age-related demands can be seen as a reason why social media are so attractive for teenagers.