In the present day, Internet technology and social media totally dominate as a means of communication. The media and social interaction have a two-sided nature, as the important role is not only those of the media messages to the users, but of the users to the media, too. This article aims to present the dominant importance of digital media, digital literacy transformation into a precondition for social inclusion, and an indicator of professional competence and social skills. Digital citizenship is a term that reflects the level of training and competencies, with a view to active participation in social, professional, and civic life. The article is based on two methods: Focus groups that were conducted in late 2019, which includes: Students, young mothers, pensioners, and unemployed. The second method used is the documents analysis—publications, materials, and quantitative results of research on social reactions to digital media as a source of information in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The combination of materials and data that have been analyzed are related to the period of the lockdown between March 2020 and December 2020. In the time of global social crises and confrontations, digital media literacy has turned out to be of critical importance for the normal course of social events and their interpretations. In this regard, digital citizenship contributes to social understanding and control, as well as the individual practices in the global pandemic trajectory.

This article aims to present the specifics and characteristics of personality development during adolescence in light of the family’s influence on the adolescent’s self-esteem, self-perception, and behavior. Self-concept holds a particular importance in an individual’s psychological and social development and expression. Self-concept contributes to an individual’s communication, personal confidence, and independence. The objectives of the article are as follows: to trace some basic aspects of the influence of family on personality and its formation; to present concrete empirical dimensions of the Self-concept of students in a Bulgarian environment as well as their relationships with their parents; to show whether there are differences among the main ethnic groups in terms of their Self-concept and parental influence. The empirical analysis of the article is based on research conducted with secondary school students in 2018 within the framework of the “Modern Bulgarian Education: Status and Deficits” project, of which there were 130 Bulgarian, 70 Turk, and 70 Roma students aged 14–16 and of both sexes. The students were randomly selected from several Bulgarian secondary schools. To establish Self-images and the formation of various qualities, we used a method highlighting the types of personality tests used to register Self-concept profiles, including various personal qualities in different areas of personality expression. Students rate the qualities as real and as their desire to possess them on a five-degree scale from “1”—I do not possess at all to “5”—I completely possess the corresponding quality. The survey results showed that young people to a large extent tend to strive for the construction of their Self-image as open to sociability, contacts, and communication to attain affirmation among peers and autonomy. The article also analyzes assessments of parents’ involvement in children’s lives as well as the importance of family as a value. The main conclusion of the article is that upbringing in the family is key to the development of a child’s Self-concept and success, the value structure and emotional state, as well as overall personal activity.

The present article analyzes media socialization as one of the key factors for the formation of a digital society, involving the participation of individuals and communities. The objectives of the article are: to justify the impact of family educational institutions and community environments as contributing to the development of digital skills, attitudes and media literacy. The analysis is based on three rounds of European Social Survey (ESS) - national representative surveys carried out in 2006, 2009, 2012/2013, and 2012/2013 that analyzes the participation of the Bulgarian population in the social and political life of the country. In addition, the results of empirical studies conducted at the South-West University 'N. Rilski', Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria for the period 2003-2017 are presented. The main conclusion of the article is that media socialization, based on media ecology information is important, because people acquire a clearer perspective as to how to evaluate a situation and to the increased opportunities for personal realization and development.

The present article is a study of the opportunities and constraints for youth transitions from education to employment vis-a-vi the structural relationships (of compliance and discrepancy) between the sectors of education, training and the labor market. The analysis examines the deficiencies in the coordination of the demand and supply of skills in Bulgaria, which hinder the successful employment integration of the current young generation. The mismatches in the system are highlighted on the national and the regional level where we focus on the contextual cases of Blagoevgrad and Plovdiv functional regions. The paper reveals that there is a discrepancy between labor supply and demand in the skills systems in both regions where less than half of university graduates work in the specialty they have acquired during studies. One of the conclusions of the study is that social changes under way require new strategies and approaches of lifelong learning policies that should go deeper into the regional and local level taking into account both the needs of young people for training throughout their lives and the needs of the regional labor markets.

The research hypothesis of this paper stems from the argument that the Bulgarian authorities and the broader audiences decode Roma integration through the prism of an inequalities-poverty-social exclusion framework, meaning that the growth of ‘being integrated’ is viewed as a gradual decrease of the value of indicators related to social exclusion and a steady rise in indicators of well-being. In elaborating their argument, the authors consult the recent ‘integration literature’ and then theoreticize the Bulgarian NRIS and the change of ‘integration’ vocabulary over time. A representative sociological survey is deployed as an empirical foundation for proving, or disputing, that the effects and consequences of the NRIS can be assessed based on the presented data. The explored data represent the self-assessment of individual exposures to the risk of discrimination and social exclusion in access to healthcare, employment and public services alongside the progress of NRIS. In addition, a baseline from an earlier period is used to visualize the course of social processes.