Globalization and rapidly developing technology have caused people to experience changes in many areas, from their consumption styles to their communication habits. One of these important changes is the rapid inclusion of social media in every aspect of our lives. Social media has changed many habits in daily life. For example, blogs replace letters and diaries; Skype replaces the phone; Googlemap location of map or atlas; Photo albums have been replaced by Instagram.
These days, social media has turned into a medium perceived as real rather than a virtual environment where individuals can directly reflect themselves, and individuals have begun to use social media applications in this direction. Users have begun to reflect their lifestyles, from their ideas to their clothing styles, from their consumption habits to their current activities, through social media.
Social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are used extensively, and people spend almost all their time on these platforms, except for work and sleep. People are now changing the way they socialize, and they are interested in awareness and social networks such as finding old friends, making new friends, organizing events, being informed about who is doing what, where they are, sharing music, videos, pictures and ideas.
Some of the motivations of social media users for using their own accounts are as follows:
*An effort to show and confirm that the individual is a very good, intelligent, impressive, flawless, interesting and wonderful person in his/her own opinion.
*I am sharing with you the photo I took specially for my profile.
*I am very beautiful/handsome, me in different places and from different angles.
*I am married, my husband is very handsome, we are very happy, the places we go together, the activities we do.
* I’m always on holiday, traveling to different places, eating these things.
*Who? Where? What did he do with whom? I am one of them too.
*My house, my belongings, my car are very luxurious.
*I earn well, I have a good career, I am at meeting X and not everyone can attend here.
*My wife and I are very connected to each other and we are always more at peace than anyone else.
Considering these motivations, people have made it a habit to present to the public their loved ones, what is happening in their own lives, old or new information, and they have also made it a habit to want to see everything about everyone, their friends or friends. enemy. It can also be concluded from here that surveillance is contagious and addictive. Because when one comes into contact, one’s desire to see everything increases. On the other hand, the individual thinks that everything should be known by others.
In fact, considering that the safety of life and property is in danger all over the world, people equip their homes, cars, workplaces and gardens with high security equipment, lock them tightly and surround them with security cameras; Even though the same people are increasingly moving away from face-to-face communication, they do not hesitate to share every detail of their homes, gardens, cars, work and environment on social networking sites.
The reason for this comfort in virtual environments is often; Even if person It also gives this person, who has the chance to behave differently at work, differently in the family, differently at school, an additional sense of freedom because the environments, which are always different, do not tell him what is wrong and do not hold him responsible. After all, in these environments there is no responsibility towards anyone and the person can behave as he wishes.
If these behaviors, which are practiced by a large segment of the society from seven to seventy, are examined from a broad perspective and in the long term, after a while it will be seen that there is a visible differentiation of values in the society. a certain period of time.
Family, love, compassion, friendship, morality, guests, privacy, privacy, aesthetics, etc. are important issues today. It will be inevitable that the meaning of many terms and phenomena will change in the long term.
When we look at the psychological basis of social media use, it is possible to talk about the effects of belonging, self-presentation, disclosure of personal image, being appreciated, approval of others and motivation. to separate themselves from their followers. The need to belong is a reason to establish and maintain social relationships and therefore use Facebook. visible Thanks to Twitter, people with similar interests feel good because they are immediately informed of what is happening around them thanks to the community they have created.
Each user has their own place on social media and is followed by a more or less secure audience. In these environments, it is not possible to ignore or ignore even a single person or a small group.
An eye-catching post made by an account with a small number of followers may create excitement on social media or the event may go to completely different places with a snowball effect. Therefore, every user in this environment has an importance and impact.
Thanks to the opportunities offered by social media, people’s collaborations are increasing, and everyone can be the presenter of their own channel and the journalist of their own target, as they can find someone who sees and hears their ideas, whether they want to or not. audience and become famous without paying any fee. After this process, the person is now a mass person.
Meeting at a common point in the virtual environment, supporting each other by liking and commenting, receiving appreciation from people they know or will never know, the freedom to act as they wish on social media, the comfort of both existence and absence. After a while, it becomes a lifestyle for users.
The most important point here is that users owe their existence to each other’s existence because they produce and reproduce the content themselves. What needs to be done to maintain their own existence is to be constantly active and not to disappear.
Social media users’ acceptance of each other’s existence, finding similarities in their interests and sharing information about their private lives creates a power of attraction between them. This naturally leads to an incredible and unstoppable sharing frenzy. Especially thanks to smartphones and tablet computers, people can easily connect to social media and share what they are experiencing at that moment. People are constantly active on social networking sites, regardless of their location, whether visiting, dining, wedding, funeral or important meeting.
Especially on photo-focused sharing sites such as Facebook and Instagram, users show a desire to share even the smallest details of their daily lives, even if there is nothing important in their lives.
So much so that if every activity done and every place visited is not shared on Facebook or Instagram, there will be a feeling of incompleteness and it will be felt necessary to announce the visual and name of the table to its followers before starting the meal. the place they went, the neighborhood or city they were in, the photo of the friends they met and what they were thinking at that moment.
By doing this, users who try to prove to themselves that they exist, are good, and have something to say, despite being successful on social networks, gradually fall into individualism and social loneliness in real life, which is the other side of the matter. coin. This social loneliness arises from the weakening of family, spouse, friends, relatives and friendship ties that he neglects because he makes the internet the center of his life while trying to confirm his presence on social media.
Although the main purpose of the emergence of social networks is to communicate, it actually brings some disadvantages and negatively affects the social behavior of users.
It can be said that the long-term commitment of social media contributes to the formation of a social personality in real life. Comparing oneself with other users may cause the user to feel inadequate because of these people whom they cannot and cannot reach. Users may experience addiction, emotional withdrawal, withdrawal symptoms, and inability to focus. Since there are events everywhere on social media, there may be serious concern about not being able to keep track of them all, and this may cause anxiety in users. While excessive use of social media can physically cause sleep problems, inactivity, eating disorders and obesity, when evaluated in terms of relationships, it can cause jealousy, lack of empathy, destructive and negative arguments between couples.
In fact, in today’s world where technology has become an important part of life, it is everyone’s guess that most social media users play a role, adopt the attitude they want and hide themselves easily. Despite this, it offers people the opportunity to feel like they belong to a group, even if it is virtual, to create an environment, to find a role model, to meet their most basic spiritual needs such as expressing themselves, showing their existence and socializing. Belonging to a group provides an opportunity, especially for avoidant personalities, neurotics, and those with high social anxiety. On the other hand, social media improves virtual empathy and offers different learning opportunities.
It is becoming difficult to remain indifferent to social networks, because the number of people with social media accounts is increasing day by day and there is almost no one around the person who does not use social media.
A person who is resistant to social media may be perceived as an antisocial character by the mass of users (which is the majority of society) or may be a reason for humiliation, as it may be thought that this means that the person has nothing to share on social media. An individual is considered as happy, rich or successful as he or she shows on social media. If he is in a weak position in this environment, the same environment concludes that the individual has a boring and ordinary life and does not have the self-confidence to show himself adequately.
Therefore, due to a social pressure to be shown that everything is great, users are on social media anytime and anywhere to show millions of people a profile that is never themselves, as if they have to show that they are perfect, interesting, intellectual and unique and try to prove something to the world. He shares a post on his media accounts.
Every individual wants to be accepted, noticed and appreciated for anything he thinks, says, does or produces in the social environment in which he lives. In addition, no individual likes to be contradicted, disliked or rejected with their activities or thoughts. Even a small child, whose personality is not yet fully established and who is not yet aware of the concepts of being liked and appreciated, naturally enjoys psychological affirmations. Feeling appreciated by his family and those around him is good for him and contributes to increasing his self-confidence. A person who becomes aware of this beautiful feeling and gets used to it always wants to experience this feeling, to know that he is noticed, accepted and appreciated in every aspect of his life, and he does everything for this. Social media platforms are one of the most suitable environments where an individual can feel appreciated. The liking, commenting and sharing opportunities offered by social networking sites allow people to meet these demands.
. In daily life, undoubtedly, everyone wants to be liked, but no one can easily ask the people around them, “Have I looked good today?” Do you like me? How is my hair? “How does my outfit fit?” He cannot ask one by one.
If they get more likes, they feel more loved, but when they are disliked or unnoticed, they may feel rejected. Based on this, we can conclude that some users enter social media sites to see how noticed they are, rather than to see what others are doing.
By being in social environments, people actually gain social capital, just like in real life. Just as being appreciated, admired, admired, admired in real life is profitable, so is mutual gain on social media.
Although social media use has positive aspects, it can also have serious negative effects if care is not taken.
