Gelisim News

People lynch on social media to feel they are not alone!

Istanbul Gelisim University Faculty of Applied Sciences Head of the Department of Television Journalism and Programming, Asst. Prof. Uğur Baloğlu states that while there are good and bad aspects of the changing communication language, the lynch culture in the social media the effects of which we have been struggling more and more recently has been emerged from the dark impulses of the people.

Rapidly increasing digitization brings with it many changes. Our habits of socializing and communicating by integrating with the world are also changing. According to TUIK 2020 data, 54 million people in Turkey have social media accounts. The increasing need for socialization, the ever-changing agenda, and the communication languages ​​of people hidden behind secret usernames have also changed. Many people, who find strength from keeping their identities secret, can easily criticize each other through social media tools.

Istanbul Gelisim University Faculty of Applied Sciences Head of the Department of Television Journalism and Programming, Asst. Prof. Uğur Baloğlu who makes statements on the subject, states that while there are good and bad aspects of the changing communication language, the lynch culture in the social media the effect of which we have been struggling more and more recently has been emerged from the dark impulses of the people.

LYNCH TRIGGER FIRST COMMENTS!

The increasing number of users of social media indicates that our communication practices will be different from the past. Thus, a number of forms of discrimination or violence that are already experienced by many as perpetrators or victims are reproduced in the digital space. One of them is the concept of lynching culture, which has been increasingly used in recent years.

From Istanbul Gelisim University Asst. Prof. Uğur Baloğlu states that lynching culture emphasizes hatred, anger and prejudice, and that people who unite around common feelings judge famous people or public figures, whom they see as the source of the problem, with their own truth. Baloğlu says, “Under the lynch culture lies the need for people to feel that they are not alone. The first comment made under the shared post or video is the trigger for the lynching. People hidden behind an avatar accept their own thoughts as true. When a person sees a comment similar to his/her own in the first comment, he/she feels important.”

“ATTACK ON SOCIAL REPUTATION CAUSES PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGES”

Today, not only minority groups but also celebrities are affected by the lynching culture. People with the same views feel that they are not alone by raising their voices together, and they psychologically attack people who have social reputation. Stating that lynchings have direct or indirect effects, Asst. Prof. Uğur Baloğlu states that attacking people who have a social reputation in the lynching culture can cause psychological damage.

At the same time, Baloğlu states that individual efforts can be made to prevent the lynching culture emerging in social media and to be protected from such discourses, and underlines that new media literacy courses should be given especially in primary and secondary education institutions.