The Internet is one of the most important inventions of our age. Although it is the most important invention for some, it is an indispensable set of possibilities. What I mean by the totality of possibilities is that there are many things that happen in daily life and real life within the internet medium. So much so that we can almost say "there is no such thing" in the internet world. In fact, many people are trying to enrich the internet world day by day and bring it closer to real life by making a lot of mental effort. I predict that within the next ten years the internet will be able to fully meet human needs. Thus, we will face the threat of losing our ability to be social beings by intertwining virtual life with real life.
At this point, I would like to briefly touch upon the history of the internet, which directly or indirectly affects the lives of all humanity, changes the way of life of many people, sometimes makes life easier, sometimes makes life more difficult, and its frequency of use in the world and in our country. The foundations of the Internet were laid in America in the 1960s. Thanks to the projects created in the 1960s, the Internet reached its peak in 1969. On April 30, 1993, the Internet was made publicly accessible by CERN with the WWW prefix. On April 12, 1993, the first Internet connection in Turkey was made via a leased line from METU between Ankara and Washington. When we look at the number of people using the Internet, according to data dated June 30, 2010, it is seen that nearly two billion people use it all over the world. In the same statistics, the number of users for our country is determined as thirty-five million. Although this number is not insignificant, almost one in every two people in our country uses the internet.
Today, a large portion of internet use consists of social media arising from the internet. Some studies show that when internet use is compared to social media use, a significant portion of those who go online focus on social media. For this reason, many social media channels have been created today. Newer and different programs are still being produced.
Well, the sauce. For what purpose is digital media used most? Although there is no definitive answer to this question, we can say that it is mostly used for information, communication and entertainment purposes, based on research. Social media channels are exposed to intense information flow. Everyone shares various things. While sharing provides information to individuals, it also creates a handicap. Failure to follow this information flow by any person or persons causes uncontrolled information flow. For this reason, social media users sometimes accept false, unfounded, unrealistic or unscientific information as true and are exposed to information pollution. The use of social media for communication purposes can be said to facilitate interpersonal communication. The message can be transmitted to the other party without any temporal restrictions. Additionally, users can send messages to each other without any location or financial restrictions. The entertainment aspect, which is the other purpose of social media, has a positive effect on people's ability to escape from the troubles of daily life. The "Vine" program, a social media channel that I will talk about later in my article, is mostly created to entertain people and is used for that purpose. This program has a large number of followers all over the world. It is also followed widely in Turkey.
The widespread use and use of the Internet and social media brings with it many concepts and problems. If we go back ten years, we will not encounter such a concept as internet addiction. However, internet addiction has now become a subject that is frequently emphasized, articles written and researched. It is seen that people who are introduced to the internet and social media, especially at an early age, are negatively affected behaviorally, cognitively and socially. Considering the psychosexual development periods of these people, it is observed that the identity confusion they experience increases even more. Especially considering the adolescence period, in this process of identity search, fake or virtual personality projects created on the internet Autotypes put the ideal self in adolescents in a position that is unreal and very difficult to reach. When these created ideals are added to the individuals who are already in the complex mentality of adolescence, prone to depression and whose self-esteem is just beginning to develop, the person becomes inextricable.
A research conducted with university students in our country reveals that using the internet for social interaction and entertainment are important factors in problematic internet use. In this context, considering that some university students have developmental tasks of establishing an identity and others of establishing close relationships, it can be stated that the internet provides the opportunity to quickly establish social relationships with many people at the same time, leading to intensive use of the internet for social interaction purposes. This situation may make university students a risk group in terms of problematic internet use. On the other hand, using the internet for entertainment purposes such as playing games, relaxing and having a good time can also result in problematic internet use. Because, as a result of uncontrollable excessive use of the internet for these purposes, it will be inevitable for disruptions to occur in various areas of the individual's life, especially in the field of psychosocial development.
Research findings indicate that university students' problematic internet use, identity, shows that their status is an important factor. Considering these findings, it can be stated that university students in the identity search status are more prone to experiences related to problematic internet use, while those in the successful identity status are healthy internet users. At the same time, the internet provides very valuable feedback as it gives the opportunity to interact with many people during identity attempts, and in this case, it can lead to intensive use of the internet by those in identity search status. On the other hand, since online relationships eliminate the anxiety of face-to-face relationships and provide anonymity, individuals' appearance or personality It also gives them the opportunity to try different personality and relationship styles by taking on the personality and gender they want without worrying about being judged for their personal characteristics. However, it can be said that individuals' constant use of fake identities may prevent the formation of a stable identity and that internet use may turn from healthy use to problematic use and, as a result, may threaten mental health.
As a result of the research, “ It is also noteworthy that having the "successful identity" status can reduce the level of problematic internet use, and conversely, having the "identity search" status can increase the level of problematic internet use. In addition, providing a rich cultural environment and social life to individuals who develop internet addiction at an early age (addiction is more common in those who have just started using the internet) can have a reducing or ending effect on addiction. Thus, individuals in search of identity will have the opportunity to get to know themselves through the feedback they receive and the positions they acquire in their social environments. They will discover themselves in the reality of life by getting rid of the virtuality of the internet.
In this part of my article, I would like to talk about my observations about three friends with whom I was together for about ten days recently. As I mentioned above, these friends of mine are people who have over a hundred thousand followers on the social media channel called Vine and are considered "phenomenon" in social media. They are considered as phenomena not only by social media but also by themselves. The reason I say this is that they are fascinated by the adjective attributed to them, and they begin to leave their own personalities (positive and negative aspects) aside and think that they are completely flawless. During the ten days we spent together, what I observed among all three of them is that they all want to be recognized by others. In fact, I observed that they want to be requested by others and experience a process that extends to sexual intercourse, without any importance or value of their personalities. The attention they expect in the city we visit When they cannot see the demand and the demand, they fall into a huge emotional void every day, adopt a depressive attitude and ask "How can they not know us?" I often heard sentences like: Of course, I didn't expect them to calculate that the chances of being recognized here were quite low compared to the population of the country. I observed that they lived far from these calculations and thinking in reality because they were so caught up in the virtual world.
Again, I encountered a situation that caught my attention and that I could not help but mention. For the first four days from the day we met, there was no topic of conversation other than Vine and other social media environments. I didn't think that internet addiction would affect interpersonal communication so much. Also, based on my friends, I observed that everyone in these environments has a relationship of interest. If I were to give an example from my experience, a person could make another person carry his bag because he had a lot of followers, and the person carrying the bag was doing it out of desperation, thinking that he had to do it. The work they did (filming videos for entertainment purposes) turned into a real business, and the main factor that determined the hierarchy was the number of followers of the people. I observed that the person with the highest number of followers in the meeting environments can boss others around, and while doing this, no personality traits or socio-cultural development level are taken into consideration.
In general, research shows that internet use at an early age causes problematic internet use. In other words, I can say that internet use at an early age alienates the individual from social life, cognitively the focus remains fixed on the virtual and makes it difficult to return to reality, and behaviorally it leads to compulsive behaviors (frequently checking the phone, etc.).
My writing will be an example of problematic internet use and addiction. I would like to end with an example that I thought about and experienced. Recently, a friend of mine said these words to me with the naivety of a child when his phone ran out of battery. “When I don't have my phone on or with me, I feel like I'm naked.”
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