The article raises the problem of the social expediency of an integrated approach to the tasks of urban and regional development. According to the author, such an approach should include not only improving the living environment of a modern person due to the widespread use of information and communication technologies, but also improving the mentality of the people themselves living in so-called “smart” cities, towns, villages and other settlements. On the one hand, the result of total digitalization and the advent of artificial intelligence turned out to be a large number of preferences for each resident, including new, more comfortable working conditions, recreation, solutions to household and other problems, independent creativity and unlimited opportunities for obtaining information, independent creativity and manifestation of personal positions. On the other hand, every person, regardless of their place of residence, encounters a large number of mental provocations contained in the global socio-cultural space and aimed at qualitative changes in the “worldviews” (value system) of our compatriots. Given the indicated dichotomy, the improvement of the (conditional) mentality of “smart” cities, towns, villages, etc. should be accompanied by the improvement of the mentality and the people living in them. The relevance of the problem and its solution is due to the ongoing information and semantic wars in the modern socio-cultural space. Our compatriots must have the skills to adequately understand the deep meanings in the works, materials, websites, blogs, films, advertising, etc. perceived by them, be able to make informed independent decisions without being “victims” of influence and manipulation technologies. The fact of formally introducing a person to the world of numbers does not solve the problem. The article presents data from a series of comprehensive studies using the method of intentional (motive-target) analysis on the different level (quality) of understanding semantic dominants among respondents who are regular Internet users. It is significant that socially significant characteristics of representatives of the group with a high level of understanding of deep meanings (the group of adequate understanding) turned out to be more advantageous compared to similar characteristics of respondents who did not possess such skills. The criterion of the conclusions and assessments contained here turned out to be the correspondence of the research data to the tasks of harmonious development, effective socialization and social adaptation of our compatriots.