The Effect of Online Disinhibision on Twitter Postings and the Development of Intimate Public

Year 2022, Issue: 38, 45 - 63, 07.12.2022

Burcu Gumus

https://doi.org/10.31123/akil.1170093

Abstract

Since 2020, sexual harassment and abuse cases in Turkey have been shared with the hashtags #SendeAnlat and #UykularınKaçsın on many social media channels, especially on Twitter, by victims and many people who feel sensitive about the issue. The purpose of this study is to understand the sharing contents of people who disclose about sexual assault and abuse they have experienced with the hashtags on Twitter and what details these tweets contains. While trying to understand whether the anonymity that Twitter provides to its users creates an online disinhibition effect on the postings, it has been tried to understand the effect of witnessing the disclosures in the form of reading and retweeting shared tweets on the intimate public. Within the scope of the study, a data set was created by obtaining the shares made with the hashtag #SendeAnlat and #UykularKaçsın, which is the trend topic between December 2020 and February 2021, from Twitter through the Python program. As a result of the content analysis using Nvivo and Excel, it was determined that very few of the victims in Turkey disclosed their own experiences, unlike the #MeToo movement in the world. This revealed that online disinhibition is not sufficient to disclose the victimization in Turkey. However, it has been observed that a strong concept of intimate public has developed around the posts.

Keywords

Hashtag Activism, Online Disinhibition, Intimate Public, Twitter, #SusmaBitsin, #Uykuların Kaçsın

Twitter Paylaşımlarında Çevrimiçi Disinhibisyon’un Etkisi ve Yakın Kamu’nun Gelişmesi

Abstract

2020’den itibaren Türkiye’de yaşanan cinsel taciz ve istismar vakaları #SendeAnlat ve #UykularınKaçsın etiketleriyle Twitter başta olmak üzere birçok sosyal medya mecrasında gerek mağdurlar gerekse konuya ilişkin hassasiyet hisseden birçok kişi tarafından paylaşılmıştır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, Twitter’da söz konusu etiketlerle yaşadıkları cinsel saldırı ve istismar konusunda ifşada bulunan kişilerin paylaşım içeriklerinin ne olduğu, hangi detayları içerdiğini anlamaktır. Bununla birlikte, Twitter’ın kullanıcılarına sağladığı anonimliğin yapılan paylaşımlarda çevrimiçi disinhibisyon etkisi yaratıp yaratmadığı anlaşılmaya çalışılırken, paylaşılan tweetlerin okunması, retweetlenmesi şeklinde yaşanan ifşalara yapılan tanıklığın yakın kamu üzerindeki etkisi anlaşılmaya çalışılmıştır. Çalışma kapsamında Aralık 2020 – Şubat 2021 tarihleri arasında trend topic olan #SendeAnlat ve #UykularınKaçsın etiketleriyle yapılan paylaşımlar Python programı aracılığıyla Twitter’dan elde edilerek bir veri seti oluşturulmuştur. Nvivo ve Excel kullanılarak yapılan içerik analizi sonucunda, dünyadaki #MeToo hareketinden farklı olarak, Türkiye’de mağdurların çok azının kendi yaşadıkları deneyimleri ifşa ettiği belirlenmiştir. Bu da çevrimiçi disinhibisyonun Türkiye’de yaşanan mağduriyetin ifşası için yeterli olmadığını ortaya koymuştur. Bununla birlikte, yapılan paylaşımlar çevresinde güçlü bir yakın kamu kavramının geliştiği gözlemlenmiştir.

Keywords

Hashtag Aktivizmi, Çevrimiçi Disinhibisyon, Yakın Kamu, Twitter, #SusmaBitsin, #UykularınKaçsın

References

• Ahrens, C. E., Campbell, R., Ternier-Thames N.K., Wasco, S.M. & Sefl T. (2007). Deciding Whom to Tell: Expectations And Outcomes Of Rape Survivors’ First Disclosures. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 31, 38-49.
• Bakan, R. (2019). #METOO’dan #WHYDIDNTREPORT’a: Dijital Eylemlerin İmkânları ve Sınırları Üzerine. Kültür ve Siyasette Feminist Yaklaşımlar 37-38,17-34.
• Bargh, J. A., McKenna, K. Y. A.., & Fitzsimons, G. M. (2002). Can You See the Real Me? Activation And Expression of the ‘‘True Self’’ On the Internet. Journal of Social Issues, 58, 33–48.Bennett, W. L. & Segerberg, A. (2012). The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media And The Personalization Of Contentious Politics. Information, Communication & Society, 15, 739–768.
• Berlant, L. (1998). Intimacy: A Special Issue. Critical Inquiry, 24 (2), 281-288.
• Berlant, L. (2008). The Female Complaint: The Unfinished Business of Sentimentality in American Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
• Berlant, L. (2011). Cruel Optimism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Berlant, L. & Warner, M. (1998). Sex in Public. Critical Inquiry, 24 (2), 547–566.
• Bollmer, G. (2018). Software Intimacies (Social Media and the Unbearability of Death). A. S. Dobson, N. Carah & B. Robard. (Der.). Digital Intimate Publics and Social Media: Towards Theorising Public Lives on Private Platforms (45 - 58) içinde. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Bogen, K.W., Bleiweiss, K. & Orchowski, L. (2018). Sexual violence is #NotOkay: Social Reactions To Disclosures Of Sexual Victimization On Twitter” Psychology of Violence, 9 ,127-137.
• Bucher, T. (2017). The algorithmic Imaginary: Exploring the Ordinary affects of Facebook Algorithms. Information, Com- munication & Society, 20 (1), 30–44.
• Bogen, K. W., Bleiweiss, K., & Orchowski, L. M. (2018). Sexual violence is #NotOkay: Social reactions to disclosures of sexual victimization on Twitter. Psychology of Violence, 9, 127-137.
• Bogen, K. W., Millman, C., Huntington, F., & Orchowski, L. M. (2018). A qualitative analysis of disclosing sexual victimi- zation by #NotOkay during the 2016 presidential election. Violence and Gender, 5, 174-181.
• Bogen, K. W., Bleiweiss, K. K., Leach, N. R., & Orchowski, L. M. (2021). #MeToo: Disclosure and Response to Sexual Victimization on Twitter. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36, (17–18), 8257–8288.
• Cankurtaran, Ö. & Şaldırdak, G. A. (2021). Bir İfşa Mekânı Olarak Kadınlar Kulübü Örneğinde Cinsel Şiddetin Online İfşası ve İfşalara Verilen Tepkiler. Fe Dergi 13 (1), 28-41.
• Cefai, S., & Couldry, N. (2017). Mediating the Presence of others: Reconceptualising Co-Presence As Mediated Inti- macy. European Journal of Cultural Studies, efrst. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549417743040
• Chen, G. M., Pain, P., & Zhang, J. (2018). #NastyWomen: Reclaiming the Twitterverse from Misogyny J.R. Vickery & T. (Der.). Everbach Mediating misogyny: Gender, technology & harassment (s. 371 – 388). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Dixon, K. (2014). Feminist Online İdentity: Analyzing The Presence of Hashtag Feminism. Journal of Arts and Humani- ties 3, 34–40.
• Dobson, A. S., Carah, N. & Robard, B. (2018). Digital Intimate Publics and Social Media: Towards Theorising Public Lives on Private Platforms. London: Palgrave Macmillan
• Gerbaudo, P. (2014) Twitler ve Sokaklar: Sosyal Medya ve Günümüzün Eylemciliği. İstanbul: Agora Kitaplığı. Giddens, A. (1992). The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism İn Modern Societies. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Kaya, Ş. (2018). Kadın ve Sosyal Medya. Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences, 17 (2), 563-576.
• Marwick, A. E., & Boyd, D. (2011). I tweet honestly, ı tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imag- ined audience. New Media & Society, 13 (1), 114–133.
• McGlotten, S. (2013). Virtual Intimacies: Media, Affect and Queer Sociality. Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Munford, R. (2014). “Post Feminism” or “Ghost Feminism”. R. Munford & M. Waters (Der.). Feminism and Popular Cul- ture Investigating the Postfeminist Mystique (s.17-36) içinde News Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
• Pitcan, M., Marwick, A. E., & Boyd, D. (2018). Performing a Vanilla Self: Respectability Politics, Social Class, And the Digital World. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication 23 (3), 163-179.
• Plummer, K. (2003). Intimate Citizenship: Private Decision and Public Dialogues. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
• Poletti, A. (2011). Coaxing Intimate Public: Life Narrative in Digital Storytelling. Continuum, 25(1) 73-83.
• Suk, J., Abhishek, A., Zhang, Y., So Y., Correa, A.T., Garlough, C. & Shah, D. V. (2019). #MeToo, Networked Acknowl- edgment, and Connective Action: How Empowerment Through Empathy. Launched A Social Movement. Social Science Computer Review. 1-19.
• Suler, J. (2005). The Online Disinhibition Effect. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 7, 321–326.
• Van Dijk, J. (2013). The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Walby, S. (2011). The Future of Feminism. Cambridge: Polity.
• Williams, S. (2015). Digital Defense: Black Feminists Resist Violence and Hashtag Activism. Feminist Media Studies, 15, 341–344.
• Wilson, A. (2016). The Infrastructure of Intimacy Signs. Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 41 (2), 247–280.
• Yıldırım, A. & Şimşek, H. (2013). Sosyal Bilimlerde Nitel Araştırma Yöntemleri. Ankara: Seçkin Yayıncılık.
• Zimmerman A. G. & Ybarra G. J. (2016). Online Aggression: The Influences of Anonymity and Social Modeling. Psychol Popular Media Cult. 5, 181–193.