The article is dedicated to finding reasons for the reliability of such a data collection tool as Internet surveys. The article consistently presents the arguments “pro” and “contra” using online surveys. In the scientific community, “contra” arguments are often put forward considering ideal research standards, which are often not feasible even in proven methods of data collection, such as censuses, phone surveys, etc. Based on this, in the article each argument “contra” is placed into the comparative plane — by examining the Internet surveys’ accusations of insufficient representativeness, sampling bias, and other disadvantages along with similar arguments against accepted methods of data collection, the lack of theoretical and methodological foundation of these charges is revealed. The irrelevance of “contra” arguments is also shown by analyzing global and Russian trends in the spread of the Internet and computer literacy. The “pro” arguments presented in the article are intended to demonstrate the features of generalization of findings obtained using online surveys, considering the specifics of this type of data collection. The evidence presented in the article for the validity of data obtained in online surveys confirms the possibility of using them in particular for making legal and public management decisions, provided that the specifics of the obtained data are taken into account.

The article considers a range of issues in the analysis of the consumer society in order to develop an index that characterizes states in terms of the degree of their consumerization. The authors suggest the staging of social changes in the development of the consumer society, the possibility of comparing societies on a scale that reflects this staging, and the presence of distinctive features determined by the mechanism of transition to this type of society. The article explains the role of individual demand, the quantitative increase in the possibilities of which is reflected in its qualitative structure, which determines the growth of the non-material demand, the potential of which far exceeds any possible demand for material goods. Based on the review of studies and statistical data, the authors confirm the central role of branding in the consumer society and develop the consumerization index (IC) as a natural logarithm of the product of the average per capita number of registered trademarks (T) and average per capita consumer spending (S) of households (IC=ln(ST)). The index reflects the space of consumption opportunities for the average individual in a particular society. According to the authors calculations, the lowest values of the index are observed in the poor countries of Asia and Africa, where the consumer society is obviously undeveloped, while the maximum values of the index - in the regions that can be considered a reference in terms of consumption. The authors assessed the convergent and discriminant validity of the index on the indicators of the information society development, economic, political and cultural globalization, and the connections it generates correspond to theoretical expectations. Thus, the constructed index can be considered a valid indicator and can be used in empirical cross-country comparisons based on the concept of the consumer society.