This are economic problems, the pandemic and anti-covid measures of the authorities, the state of the information field, the lack of an attractive image of the future, increased repressive rhetoric, and even weather conditions.
Emergencies, crime, health problems, stray dogs, interethnic and other conflicts, as well as resonant statements by regional officials and deputies - all these topics have long been at the top of media consumption, but now, according to analysts from the popular Nezygar channel, an increasing trend is being recorded for proactive construction of such phobias in the public mind.
Mass media experts state the audience's priority request for disturbing content and associate it with a high level of anxiety in a significant part of Russian society. The covid-crisis has seriously affected the mental state of society, increased the feeling of anxiety and uncertainty, which also affects the current parameters of media consumption.
In addition, attention is drawn to the growing interest in occult and esoteric factors in public discourse, which also allows us to talk about the strengthening of irrationality in the structures of sociality.
Such an emotional background, in turn, makes people focus on current problems and increases social pessimism, as well as reduces the radius of public trust. Such tendencies generate in the Russian society, first of all, general social apathy.
Sociologists from the Petersburg Politics Foundation and INSOMAR conducted a study of this phenomenon that has affected Russian society.
They formulated the definition: “Social apathy is the state of elimination from social and political interactions that prevails in society, accompanied by an oppressed psycho-emotional background”.
We found that this is an exclusively Russian concept. The world literature uses the words “non-participation”, “anomia”, which do not convey the full scale of the phenomenon.
According to the results of the study, there were three versions of what social apathy is in Russia. The first is the rejection of everything socio-political, from parties to the activity of the Home Unit Companies. The second is a depressed state that rejects the value of any action. "What's the point, still nothing to change, nothing depends on us, everything is useless". And the third is a reduced interest in the value of today.
All factors are involved in the formation of an apathetic feeling at once - economic problems, the pandemic and anti-COVID measures of the authorities, the state of the information field, the lack of an attractive image of the future, increased repressive rhetoric, and even weather conditions. The descent into apathy can be long. But the exit is often swift and spontaneous, and 4 exit options are possible: depression, aggression, panic and euphoria.
The situation as a whole adversely affects the mental health of the society and contributes to the accumulation of negative emotions and stress factors. Considering that the inertia of the covid crisis will be long-term, experts predict the preservation of such a structure of public sentiment in the medium and long term, sociologists are sure.