Erosion of the Value Foundations of Youth Civic Identity amid Cognitive Warfare

This article identifies the structural preconditions of cognitive warfare and assesses its impact on youth civic identity within a post-information order and a platform-based media environment. The study’s aim is to empirically test whether the intensity of youths’ digital engagement correlates with the state of core value dominants of their civic identity and with signs of reduced cognitive autonomy. Methodologically, the work combines a field study in natural classroom settings (September–October 2025, MPSU and the Financial University; n=78, aged 18–22), a binary questionnaire, participant observation, and brief projective tasks, followed by descriptive statistics and qualitative interpretation. The findings register high digital load, short concentration intervals, and parallel value erosion at both declarative and behavioral levels. The conclusion is that not individual messages as such, but modes of presentation and processing in the digital environment are decisive; practical recommendations focus on strengthening cognitive autonomy, restoring procedural literacy, and translating values into stable everyday practices. The theoretical contribution lies in aligning the cognitive-warfare framework with the measurement of civic identity via the “Pentabasis” model under platformized communication.