History of relationship between human being and technology is full of examples showing that this issue has to be opened up for discussion. This is to make inevitable to handle in a more serious way the issues such as developing a critical attitude toward internet, and social networking sites in particular, and adopting some precautions as regards of use of them. We live in an era that technological development had never been fast as such throughout history. We think that it would be convenient to describe it “dizzying”. It can be said without hesitation that technology has exceeded development in all other fields of civilization; for instance it can be easily said that people working in health sector and individuals receiving health services can not catch up with pace of change/development in medical devices.
That this situation changed/restructured certain habits, manners of approach, sensitivities and priorities as an outcome of traditions of the people lasting for centuries brought debates which are carried about technology itself today. Internet is in the center of these debates both because the level of technology is best represented by it and it holds a shaping role in changing.
Social networking sites transforming into a global activity in last few years are under questioning with important claims such as that they pave the way for losing universal moral values, produce principal security problems and negatively impact relations among individuals. Despite these serious question marks, hundreds of millions people who think social networking sites provides considerable comfort and meet important needs continue to use social networks.
However, history of relations between human being and technology is full of evidences to reveal the necessity to open this issue up for discussion. This is to make inevitable to handle in a more serious way the issues such as developing a critical attitude toward internet, and social networking sites in particular, and adopting some precautions as regards of use of them.
Rowland Miller, Professor of Psychology, from the US who did researches on embarrassment for years claims that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter made people forget embarrassing. Departing from this claim, we want to make contribution in understanding of the process by making an investigation regarding whether social networking sites pave the way for loss of individual/collective social values and their positive and negative impacts on relations between individuals and in social life.
For our investigation, we addressed questions to representatives from different professions, academicians, representatives from NGOs, journalists, writers and those working in media sector to learn their ideas as regards the issue. We put great effort in forming a diverse group of interviewees in terms of their interests/professions and their representation.
Answers examined, it is observed that ongoing discussions regarding social networking sites is handled in a different aspect by each person and representative of a profession. This scene can be interpreted in the way that the issue has a vast influence on a large audience or social networking sites are a new field without a long history. However both interpretations lead us to the reality that significant question marks will arise in this issue. In the coming years not only probable effects of social networking sites will be displayed more clearly but also this issue will be examined in broader and deeper platforms.
We hope that our study will contribute to this process and we express our gratitude to all participants who help us to take this step with their answers.