TY - JOUR T1 - ‘Instagram affects everyone but me’: A study on the social media mindset in western Türkiye TT - ‘Instagram herkesi etkiliyor ama beni değil’: Batı Türkiye’de sosyal medya zihniyeti üzerine bir araştırma AU - Aslan, Pınar AU - Bozkanat, Esra PY - 2025 DA - June Y2 - 2025 DO - 10.26650/CONNECTIST2025-1642930 JF - Connectist: Istanbul University Journal of Communication Sciences PB - Istanbul University WT - DergiPark SN - 2636-8943 SP - 1 EP - 17 IS - 68 LA - en AB - This study, which is motivated by the figures that Türkiye exhibits the highest average daily usage of Instagram compared to all other countries, aims to understand and analyze Instagram’s mindset focusing on Postman’s definition of media ecology which mentioned how the platform affects users’ perception, understanding, feeling, values and chances of survival to be able to reach conclusions on social media mindset. The research part is a descriptive analysis of the social media mindset with a focus on media ecology and it is a qualitative one based on in-depth interviews. Instagram users who define them as regular users of social media were interviewed using the questions that were formed with regard to expert opinion and the data was analyzed using MAXQDA. The most striking result of the research was that users are quite aware of the effect of Instagram in relation to media ecology, but they consider themselves out of this ecosystem. This is what the authors call ‘a media survival dichotomy:’ although Instagram users accept that Instagram affects people’s perception, understanding, feeling, values and chances of survival, they also think that they are not affected. KW - Social media KW - social media mindset KW - media ecology KW - Instagram KW - Türkiye N2 - Instagram'ı en çok kullanan ülkeler arasında Türkiye’nin ortalama kullanım oranları verilerine göre birinci sırada olmasından yola çıkılarak tasarlanan bu çalışma, Postman'ın medya ekolojisi tanımına odaklanarak bir sosyal medya platformu olarak Instagram’ın kullanıcıların algısını, anlayışını, hissini, değerlerini ve hayatta kalma şanslarını nasıl etkilediğini analiz etmeyi ve bu veri üzerinden sosyal medya zihniyeti hakkında güncel sonuçlara ulaşmayı amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmanın araştırma kısmı, sosyal medya zihniyetinin betimsel bir analizi olup medya ekolojisi kavramına odaklanarak oluşturulmuş ve uzman görüşü alınarak şekillendirilmiş derinlemesine görüşme sorularına dayanan nitel bir analizdir. Kendini düzenli Instagram kullanıcısı olarak tanımlayan kişilerle derinlemesine görüşmeler gerçekleştirilmiş ve görüşmeler deşifre edilerek MAXQDA programı aracılığıyla kodlanıp analiz edilmiştir. Instagram’ın insanların kendilerini ve hayatlarını olduğundan farklı göster diği gibi, sosyal medyaya dair güncel tespitlere ulaşan çalışmanın en dikkat çekici sonucu, kullanıcıların Instagram'ın medya ekolojisiyle ilişkisinin ve etkilerinin farkında olmalarına rağmen kendilerini bu ekosistemin dışında görmeleri ve bu farkındalığın getirdiği bilinçle sosyal medyadan etkilenmediklerini düşünmeleridir. Yazarların ‘medyada hayatta kalma ikilemi’ olarak adlandırdığı konu tam da budur: Instagram kullanıcıları, Instagram'ın insanların algısını, anlayışını, hissini, değerlerini ve hayatta kalma şanslarını etkilediğini kabul etmelerine rağmen, kendilerinin diğer insanlardan farklı olarak bu olgudan etkilenmediklerini düşünmektedir. CR - Adorno, T. (2001). 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