Sosyal Medya Reddi: Dijital Sessizlik Tercihinin Bireysel ve Toplumsal Gerekçelerinin İletişimsel Anlamları

Abstract

Dijital sessizlik, yalnızca bireysel bir tercih değil; aynı zamanda mahremiyet, dikkat, kimlik ve toplumsal normlara karşı geliştirilen eleştirel bir duruş olarak değerlendirilmektedir. Bu araştırma ireylerin sosyal medya kullanımını bilinçli olarak reddetme kararlarının ardındaki psikolojik, toplumsal ve kültürel gerekçeleri ortaya koymayı ve bu tercihin iletişimsel anlamlarını analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Çalışma, dijital kültüre yönelik alternatif iletişim stratejilerinin ve direniş biçimlerinin anlaşılmasına katkı sağlamaktadır. Dijital sessizlik pratiğinin ardındaki duygusal, kültürel ve politik gerekçeleri ortaya koyarak, bu tercihin çağdaş dijital iletişim ortamında nasıl bir anlam taşıdığı ve birey-toplum ilişkilerine nasıl yansıdığı incelenmiştir. Araştırma nitel bir desenle, fenomenolojik yaklaşım temelinde yürütülmüştür. En az altı aydır sosyal medya kullanmayan 12 katılımcı ile derinlemesine yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmeler gerçekleştirilmiş, veriler betimsel ve tematik analizle incelenmiştir. Katılımcı ifadeleri doğrultusunda dört ana tema belirlenmiştir: duygusal yorgunluk ve psikolojik geri çekilme, kültürel yabancılaşma, politik-ideolojik direniş ve dijital kimlikten uzaklaşma. Bulgular, dijital sessizliğin iletişimsizlik değil; tersine, daha bilinçli, seçici ve özerk bir iletişim biçimi olduğunu göstermektedir. Sonuç olarak bu çalışma dijital sessizlik kavramını sadece bir “dijital kopuş” olarak değil, modern iletişim ortamlarının sunduğu araçlara karşı geliştirilen bilinçli bir eleştiri ve yeniden tanımlama süreci olarak ele almayı hedeflemektedir. Bu çerçevede sosyal medya reddinin bireysel deneyimler ve toplumsal yapılar üzerindeki etkileri, iletişim bilimleri perspektifinden çok boyutlu bir biçimde değerlendirilmiştir.

Keywords

• İletişim Sosyolojisi
• Dijital Sessizlik
• Sosyal Medya Reddi
• Dijital Kimlik
• Mahremiyet
• İletişim
• Fenomenoloji.

Social Media Refusal: Communicative Meanings of Digital Silence in Light of Individual and Societal Motivations

Abstract

Digital silence is not only an individual choice but also a critical stance developed against privacy, attention, identity, and societal norms. This research aims to reveal the psychological, social, and cultural reasons behind individuals' conscious decisions to avoid social media use and to analyze the communicative implications of this choice. The study contributes to the understanding of alternative communication strategies and forms of resistance towards digital culture. By revealing the emotional, cultural, and political reasons behind the practice of digital silence, the meaning of this choice in the contemporary digital communication environment and its impact on individual-society relations are examined. The research was conducted with a qualitative design and based on a phenomenological approach. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 participants who had not used social media for at least six months, and the data were analyzed through descriptive and thematic analysis. Four main themes were identified based on the participants' statements: emotional exhaustion and psychological withdrawal, cultural alienation, political-ideological resistance, and distancing from digital identity. The findings suggest that digital silence is not a lack of communication; on the contrary, it is a more conscious, selective, and autonomous form of communication. Consequently, this study aims to consider the concept of digital silence not simply as a "digital rupture," but as a conscious process of critique and redefinition of the tools offered by modern communication environments. Within this framework, the effects of social media rejection on individual experiences and social structures are evaluated from a multidimensional perspective within communication sciences.

Keywords

• Communication Sociology
• Digital Silence
• Social Media Refusal
• Digital İdentity
• Privacy
• Communication.

References

1. Baumer, Eric P. S., ve M. Six Silberman. “When the Implication Is Not to Design (Technology).” Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2271–2274. ACM, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979275
2. Bauman, Zygmunt. Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007.
3. Brown, Alice. “Surveillance, Privacy, and Opting Out: Understanding Social Media Withdrawal.” Journal of Digital Culture Studies 3, no. 2 (2021): 45–63. https://doi.org/10.33682/abc123
4. Bucher, Taina. “Nothing to Disconnect From? Being Off the Social Media Grid.” Media, Culture & Society 43, no. 6 (2021): 1012–1026. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443721994583
5. Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books, 1959.
6. Karppi, Tero. Disconnect: Facebook’s Affective Bonds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2018.
7. Keles, Betul, Niall McCrae, ve Ann Grealish. “A Systematic Review: The Influence of Social Media on Depression, Anxiety and Psychological Distress in Adolescents.” International Journal of Adolescence and Youth 25, no. 1 (2020): 79–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2019.1590851
8. Newport, Cal. Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World. New York: Portfolio, 2019. Portwood-Stacer, Laura. “Media Refusal and Conspicuous Non-consumption: The Performative and Political Dimensions of Facebook Abstention.” New Media & Society 15, no. 7 (2013): 1041–1057. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444812465139

9. Roberts, James A., ve Meredith E. David. “My Life Has Become a Major Distraction from My Cell Phone: Partner Phubbing and Relationship Satisfaction Among Romantic Partners.” Computers in Human Behavior 54 (2016): 134–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.07.058
10. Rosen, Larry D., Katherine Whaling, L. Mark Carrier, Nancy A. Cheever, ve Jamie Rokkum. “The Media and Technology Usage and Attitudes Scale: An Empirical Investigation.” Computers in Human Behavior 29, no. 6 (2013): 2501–2511. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.06.006
11. Syvertsen, Trine. Digital Detox: The Politics of Disconnecting. Bingley: Emerald Publishing, 2020. Syvertsen, Trine, ve Gunn Enli. “Digital Detox: Media Resistance and the Promise of Connection.” Social Media Society 6, no. 1 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305119901277
12. Turel, Ofir. “Quitting the Use of a Habituated Hedonic Information System: A Theoretical Model and Empirical Examination of Facebook Users.” European Journal of Information Systems 24, no. 4 (2015): 431–446.
13. Turel, Ofir, ve Hamid Qahri-Saremi. “Problematic Use of Social Networking Sites: Antecedents and Consequence from a Dual-System Theory Perspective.” Journal of Management Information Systems 35, no. 3 (2018): 719–747. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2018.1493539
14. Van Dijck, José. The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
15. Zuboff, Shoshana. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. New York: PublicAffairs, 2019.