Social media and alienation in the context of surveillance capitalism

The digital transformation resulting from the developments in information technologies transforms the information society, which is defined as the current social structure, into a surveillance society. The economic processes of this social structure, in which the importance of digital data revealed by individuals using the internet is central, are shaped around surveillance capitalism. The use of these digital data, which especially refers to user behavior, for in-app personalizations and targeted advertising processes by observing social media adds social media to capitalism and enables the capitalist rationality to operate through new media as a cultural production structure. Social media companies transform the data obtained from the digital activity of their users into raw materials and sell them to their advertisers. As a result of technological developments and emerging competitive markets, it is aimed to change the behavior of individuals by directing individuals to a number of mental and materialistic elements for the purposes of advertising customers by using these behavioral data. As a result of technological developments and emerging competitive markets, it is aimed to change the behavior of individuals by directing individuals to several mental and materialistic elements for advertising customers by using these behavioral data. The use of behavioral data of individuals as a value-producing commodity reveals the digital type of labor, and the products of this labor emerge as an alienating force that makes the individual more dependent on social media platforms and engages in click-to-buy processes. In this sense, in the study; Rather than understanding the profound effects of social media on individuals and society as a media tool that produces material culture, the focus is primarily on social phenomena that engage the individual in such an alienating relationship.