Navigating the Castells’ Network Society: Metaverse and Telepresence in Ready Player Two and The Metaverse

Year 2025, Volume: 9 Issue: 2, 436 - 452, 27.10.2025

Halil Özdemir

Abstract

This article uses Soner Aydoğan’s The Metaverse and Ernest Cline’s Ready Player Two to explore the applicability of Manuel Castells’ Network Society framework to contemporary dystopian literature. It examines how the metaverse and telepresence technologies are represented in these novels as ingredients in a digital social order characterized by decentralized digital communication and transformed social relationships. The paper adopts a comparative literary approach to analyze virtual reality and networked space, focusing on their impact on social structures, power dynamics, and notions of subjectivity. The study shows how Castells’ theory of The Network Society is implicit in both novels. The findings demonstrate how digital networks can be both a resource for connection and a wellspring of alienation. The study says that dystopian fiction offers a critical reflection of the social consequences of new technologies, and explores how tech, community and identity are changing in the internet age.

Keywords

Network Society , Manuel Castells , dystopian literature , metaverse , telepresence

Castells’in Ağ Toplumu: Ready Player Two ve The Metaverse’te Metaverse ve Telebulunma

Abstract

Bu çalışma, çağdaş distopik edebiyatın incelenmesinde Manuel Castells’in Ağ Toplumu paradigmasının geçerliliğini, özellikle Soner Aydoğan’ın The Metaverse ve Ernest Cline’ın Ready Player Two adlı eserleri odağa alarak araştırmaktadır. Her iki eserde de metaverse ve telebulunma teknolojilerinin, merkezsizleşmiş dijital iletişim ve dönüşen toplumsal yapılarla karakterize edilen ağ temelli bir toplumsal düzenin temel bileşenleri olarak nasıl temsil edildiği incelenmektedir. Karşılaştırmalı edebi analiz yöntemiyle gerçekleştirilen bu çalışma, sanal gerçeklik ve birbirine bağlı dijital ağların romanlardaki temsillerini, sosyal ilişkiler, güç dinamikleri ve kimlik üzerindeki etkilerine odaklanarak ele almaktadır. Araştırma, Castells’in Ağ Toplumu’na dair kavramsal çerçevesinin her iki eserde de yansıma bulduğunu ortaya koymaktadır. Elde edilen bulgular, dijital ağların hem bağlantı kurma aracı hem de yabancılaştırıcı bir unsur olabileceğini göstermektedir. Çalışma, distopik kurmacanın, yeni teknolojilerin toplumsal sonuçlarını değerlendirmede eleştirel bir bakış sunduğunu ve dijital çağda teknoloji, topluluk ve kimlik arasındaki dönüşen ilişkilere ışık tuttuğunu ileri sürmektedir.

Keywords

Ağ Toplumu , Manuel Castells , Distopya , metaverse , telebulunma

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