The paper is devoted to the analysis of relationship between virtual and traditional communication in the life young people in Russia. The author notes that the experience of socialization of the current Russian youth differs from the circumstances of socialization of previous generations. A few years ago the Internet was not very popular in Russia. But almost all the conscious life of the current generation of Russian youth happened at a time when the Internet began to spread throughout the country almost everywhere. Therefore, the Internet has become a much more familiar communication tool for today's Russian youth than it used to be for the representatives of older generations. This fact creates a risk of complete virtualization of communication of young Russians. The author uses the data of his own research and makes a conclusion that the process of virtualization of youth communication is not completed, but is gradually coming. Virtual communication has not replaced traditional forms of communication of young people, but it is already seen by them as an attractive alternative.