Ozge Cavusoglu
Department of City & Regional Planning, GEBZE-KOCAELI, Turkey, Esra Demircioglu
Department of City&Regional Planning, Gebze, Kocaeli, Turkey, Darcin Akin, Gebze Institute of Technology
Department of City & Regional Planning, Gebze, Kocaeli, Turkey
Effects of Internet Chatting on Social Life and Social Space in Cities of Turkey (assigned to theme
Internet use and chatting through internet continue to have significant effects in many aspects of society. These effects are also reflected on human relations and behaviours. Today with the internet technology, human beings can easily access to information which they desire in whatever amount and format. During the last decade internet has been heavily used as a widespread communication medium. It is used for many purposes including “chatting” which is known as a service of synchronous communication via the internet. It is highly affordable and easily usable way of communication. However, internet chatting has brought some negative effects into social life. In our study we will present some examples of the adverse effects of internet chatting on social life of Turkish people and also will relate these effects to urban form. According to a research done on internet users in Bornova, Izmir, city of 3 million people extended along the west cost of Aegean Sea, it was reported that youth using the internet for chatting presented different personalities in front of the monitor and lied to present themselves as an ideal character and in an ideal look. As it was reported, the ratio of the interviewees who lied was 58.7% and the rest claimed that they were not (Caglayan, 2001). It must be noted that this ratio reflects only those who were so brave to disclose that they were liars in the virtual environment. Nevertheless, this figure shows that more than half of the internet chatters lie about their characters and looks. Another research indicates that the age group who internet chats most is the group between 19 and 24 years old. Eighteen and below followed them. It is reported that almost a half of this age group chat three hours a day and approximately 15% of the group chat 9 hours a day (Arac, 1998). These data show that internet chatting is popular among young people and also many of them chat with a secondary personality and/or identity. Youth who are addicted to internet chatting have a great tendency to separate themselves from social spaces. These individuals prefer having relations on virtual medium with virtual people instead of having relationships between real people in social spaces.
Regarding these new social personalities or identities created by the internet technology, there are some vital questions that need to be answered. How can these people addicted to virtual relationships fit themselves healthily into the real world? Will they be successful in the face-to-face dialogs? As a social being will the humans be successful to protect their own personality while being away from the social space? If not what will they do? How will internet chatting affect social life in our cities? And at last in the future can these virtual relationships create virtual cities; i.e., cities without social spaces? In our study we will develop and discuss some answer for these questions, and finally present some possible interactions between “internet identities” and “cities in present and future”.
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