Turkish Cypriots’ Reconstruction of Identity Through a Facebook Group / Kıbrıslı Türklerin Bir Facebook Grubu Aracılığıyla Sanal Dünyada Kimliklerini Yeniden İnşası

Abstract

When we speak of the virtual word, one of the first social networking sites that comes to mind, not only in Turkey but all over the world must be Facebook. With our increased daily usage of Facebook, this social networking site is where both our daily lives and interpersonal relationships are transferred to. The present study is based on the observation of a facebook group formed by Turkish Cypriots in a way that includes the representation of the individuals, their in-group behaviour, discourse, and shared comments in the group. The study also includes evaluations about the meaning and importance of symbols based on intermittent observations about life style and culture in Cyprus. In the scope of the study, the shared comments of the group members were followed from 2015 to 2017 by participant observation. It was observed that group members have a great amount of shared comments about folk literature samples, handcrafts, rural life, images from the past, children’s games, places, and consumption materials like food and drinks that emphasize being Cypriot. The study deals with how shared comments and discourse that reconstruct being a Cypriot every time the Cypriot accent is used, contribute to the construction of the Cypriot identity in the virtual world within the framework of ethnology and social anthropology

Keywords

• Facebook
• identity
• virtual world
• Turkish Cypriots
• memory