The second live broadcast panel of WeTheMedia Project was held on the Facebook page of the Anka Youth Association.
In our second panel, 3 distinguished participants shared their knowledge and experiences with their listeners about the evolving social media and the effects of social media on Turkish youth.
Kemal Uysal – President of E-Youth Association
Kemal Uysal has been a volunteer working in the youth field since 1996-1997. He states that while the internet was not yet fully discovered, he and his teammates started to overcome the problems with the association he was in at that time. In his comparisons, he emphasizes that while communication was only possible with newspapers, books, or televisions at that time, it is possible with all kinds of social media now. He also talks about the positive and negative aspects of social media. For example, with social media, social awareness has increased, and people in need have started to benefit from far away. Social media has started to provide education, work, friendship, and entertainment opportunities to people if used consciously. According to him, everyone should accept that social media is an area of free expression, and he underlines the need to focus on digital literacy. Even more, it highlights the difference between pre-pandemic social media and post-pandemic social media. Social media content created after the pandemic is taken into consideration more, and young people focus more on this area. From this point of view, every sharing should be done with care and attention.
Dr. Sevgi Kesim Güven
Sevgi Kesim Güven discusses the effects of social media through academic data and information. According to her speech, people spend 46 percent of their time (one-third of the day) on the Internet, except for bedtime. Based on the world average, we spend 2 and a half hours a day on the Internet. Considering these crucial numbers, people’s tendency to spend time on the Internet demonstrates that they have a comfortable space and they are away from the truth. He highlights the negative features of social media and states that everything that comes from social media is temporary. One of the biggest dangers of social media is surveillance technology. To protect our freedom and independence, we must defend our privacy. Digital memory is indelible, not like human memory. Most of the things you put in the digital memory can be found later. For example, while applying for a job, previous posts on social media are taken into account, which can make people have a difficult situation. So, do you want to become a digital data?
Tolga Kayasu
According to Tolga Kayasu, people are looking for a channel where they can get information instantly on many subjects from sports to magazines, from economy to politics. This freedom of information has changed shape and is connected to social media. When you look at the number of views, you will see that there is a gap between Youtube and television. In other words, people stop watching TV and prefer Youtube and similar channels instead. Because now both advertisers and viewers are here, channels can now reach consumers much more easily by supporting these kinds of platforms. Communication is a platform that constantly renews and nourishes itself. When we look at the numerical data in the world, we can see that we are progressing in the light of these data. 3% of the websites in the world belong to Turkish people and we are in the 4th place in the world ranking. By looking at these data, it is quite clear that we are presenting our presence on the social platform. So what is this social media that we always talk about? He states that social media is a communication medium. It is a platform where content is produced and people can be reached. Although social media sometimes makes people lonely, it also provides a good opportunity for socialization if the utilizers use the platform in their own language.