Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
HODJA AKHMET YASSAWI 5th International Conference on Scientific Research, Nakhchivan, Azerbaycan, 5 - 06 Kasım 2021, cilt.3, ss.157-165
At the end of the 2019, SARS-CoV 2 mostly known coronavirus (Covid-19) has started to affect all over the World. Many people stayed at homes to protect themselves from the rapid spread of Covid-19. During these lock downs, people began to use their internet for variety of purposes and spend more time in virtual world. As of January 2021, about 60% of the world’s population use the internet, and 92,6% of the access the internet via mobile phones (http1). In the context of Turkey, social media usage has increased by 11% over the past year, and it has been determined that 70,8% of the population use active social media and spend around 8 hours a day on online platforms (http2). Regarding these statistical data, it can be said that social media became a new medium where people can express themselves. The use of social media as a public sphere is a common subject that has been studied after the Internet opened for public use. However, in the covid-19 period, social platforms have become spaceless communication areas and provided dialog between the authorities and public. This article questions social media as a public sphere during covid-19 lock downs with its positive and negative aspects. In this context, the relationship of concepts such as public sphere and social media were explained first. As the compliance of space stands out in the public sphere definition of Jürgen Habermas, Hannah Arendt and Richard Sennett also focus on behaviors in the public sphere. In this point of view, social media’s placelessness enables being public sphere and its’ unlimited communication, socialization, community creation, connectivity, participation, transparency, freedom, having formal and informal rules testify it. However social media as a public sphere has negative sides concerning accessibility for all, usage freedom, misinformation dissemination and different fields of usage. It is aimed to question social media and public sphere in emergency situations like Covid-19 pandemic and create a new perspective for further studies.