Anthropology in Turkey Changing Role

Anthropology in Turkey

Changing role of Social media among the youth of Turkey: How social media is shaping lives

There are various reasons for choosing this particular topic for the anthropological research within Turkey. It has been observed that in Turkey, there are very few legislations within the laws as well as the constitution that are explicit about the protection of youth and the remedies from unacceptable behaviors. According to Euro-Mediterranean Youth Platform (2010), Turkey plays host to the largest youth population in the entire Europe with 11.4% of them being between the ages 19-24. These people suffer greatly from frustrations of the social, cultural as well as the economic systems. The youth comprise 25% of the Turkish population which is almost 15 million youth yet there is only one provision in the constitution directed at protecting the security of the youth and despite the local law's provision of there being a youth parliament within the councils, this law is not implemented at all.

This alienation from the issues that matter to the youth has seen the youth divert from the main course campaigns in open rallies to the social media, where most youth are free to express their ideas and share progressive solutions. This has therefore changed the role of social media in Turkey from merely an interactive media to an educational medium especially among the youth. It is from this peculiar role that the social media is playing in Turkey and the peculiarity of the medium that this topic comes to be relevant to this anthropological research.

Where would you study this topic?

In order to closely get involved in the research and experience the changing role of the social media, I will be studying the role of the social media within a national university. This choice has been informed by the fact that it is at the university that one can adequately experience a society in transition especially in terms of the ideological dispensation that will ultimately affect the society back in the cities and the rural villages. The other fact that informed the choice of the place to engage in this research is that the universities provide the academicians who are open and privy to using the social media all the time. So, having opinion leaders and it literate people from one source is the best place to conduct such anthropological researches.

Who would you study?

In the course of any anthropological research, it is significant to concentrate on the source or point from which you will be able to extract the quality as well as quantity information. This will ensure that the data found will be highly representative of the entire population. The samples that I will use in this research are the final year students and the first year students within the university. This will ensure I capture the transitions that they undergo from the time they are naive and experience culture shock within the new environment and their changing ideologies as they exit the all familiar environment after four years.

What would you look at?

The focus of my study will be the changing ideologies that the students portray in the midst of all the segregation by their own government and how they use the social media to influence the society and the youth in particular will be the focus of the research.

What would your methods be like?

Baring that I will be seeking to see how the social media is used and how it changes the youth there, as well as to know the changing ideologies over years, there are two research methods that I will use; the Questionnaire/interviews method as well as the participant observation research method.

Describe how you would spend time in the field, who would you be with, what questions you would ask, and why?

The first thing will be to know the influential leaders within the students' body. From there I will schedule interviews with them and also observe their leadership skills and the way they conduct their briefings to students on the occasions that they will be on an assembly of students alone.

The next thing I will do is to know the online groupings that are associated with youth matters and leadership issues. I will strive to join as many forums as possible especially those that bring together students from various universities. This way I will be a participating observer in these online groupings.

I will also schedule meetings over the months that I will be there with the administrators as well as the lecturers so as to get the feeling of their observation of the transformation of students over years and know if there has been any change with the entry of the online interactions.

Why would this study be significant, and what would it contribute to our knowledge of the anthropology of Turkey and the study of these topics?

The study will be central in the studying of the changing trend of communication and interaction as well as relation between the younger generation in Turkey and the older generation. It is known how much or how far the elderly politicians express their ideas and influence opinions. However, little is known of the younger members of the society and how their roles in the society and modes of expressing themselves are changing.

This study will also give a pointer to the possibility or otherwise of the society or community shifting from the rudimentary physical contact and sight type of society, to a cloud community and still have the influence or even more than the physical traditional kind of society.

How long would you plan to spend in the field? Be as specific as possible and give as many details as possible.

This is a study that can adequately be done in a span of one year. The reason behind this is that I will need to see the changing trends and how the social media influences the youth and not just ask the questions and record the replies. The first three months will be basically for studying the trends that are common among my samples and the first years in particular will need time to get oriented to the surrounding that disoriented them when they moved from the high school environment to the university setting, this will apply to me as well since this will be a time to imbibe their culture and get oriented to their way of operation. The next three months will be for me play an active role in the research methods and participate thoroughly. Then I will take some time being analytical of any changes that might have taken place both on the social media community which I shall have joined as well as the students with whom I shall have been interacting with over the last six months.

The next three months will be for me to find explanations where possible of any changes that I might have experienced and seek to know if it is a common trend that had been there or if it will be a new thing. After that, I will have to have a comparative analysis through using my data and now engaging some senior citizens on how they used to conduct their business and how, if any, things have changed as well as the effect of this on the traditional community and the decision processes they used to have.

What would be the pleasures and challenges of being an anthropologist? What would you expect to find out?

There are various challenges that come with getting to the field to conduct research especially as an anthropologist. One of the challenges comes from the fact that you will not be studying the community but studying in the community. This in itself is expected to come with a whole lot of challenges since the difference in race, religion and rationality will now come into play. These 3Rs are bound to be different from my native land hence to adjust to these standards will be hectic.

Luckily Turkey has English as one of the major languages, but still it will take some effort to learn the contextual use of English among them. This is because with varying cultures, the use of language also changes especially the context that keeps changing from one society to another even with a similar language in use.

The other challenges I am sure to face is being away from the surrounding I am accustomed to since birth and staying for such a long time in a strange land. This will also be accompanied by long and irregular research times.