A netnographic study on Instagram and Youtube with the perspective of social media and consumption culture

Internet technology emerges as a field that is developing and increasing its impact day by day. With the development of internet technology, new applications emerge and developments are experienced in social media. One of these developments is the presentation of consumption items on social media platforms and increasing their visibility. Today, social media users display their daily lives on these platforms. Users both increase the number of followers with online shares and present their consumption object on social media platforms through photos and videos by collaborating with various brands and companies. These users, who actively share on both Instagram and YouTube, are called content producers and the research is designed. The shares of content producers and the comments of followers who follow these content producers are also closely related to the consumption dimension. Therefore, the aim of the study is to determine what the effects of both the consumers who produce content and those who consume these content on the consumption market through the shares of social media users. It is to reveal by interpreting what images and texts mean in terms of consumption. This research is a qualitative study as a visual and textual analysis will be used in the context of netnography. It has been tried to be discussed through the interpretation of how multimedia tools such as photographs, videos and pictures that users share represent hyperreality, how they present what is conspicuous consumption, and whether they constitute uniformity in terms of consumer products. Based on the literature review and theoretical framework of the research, the presentation of consumption items on social media platforms is focused. As a result, within the scope of the research, it has been determined that social media is the carrier of consumption culture and that culture is reproduced by sharing consumption objects.