Research on new age fortune telling as a new consumption product on social media

Today, individuals' search for meaning, life practices imposed by the capitalist system, increasing levels of anxiety and various psycho-social factors support the formation and continuity of different forms of belief. In the historical process, people's desire to know the future, their fear of the unknown and their efforts to cope with helplessness, combined with the desire to achieve happiness, paved the way for the continued existence of practices such as fortune telling. Today, such belief practices are reproduced in modern forms under the title of "New Age" through digital technologies and online channels. Fortune-telling practices, which individuals resort to as a result of their search for information and meaning for the future, turn into objects of consumption and become commodified over time. In this context, the main purpose of this study is to analyze the socio-cultural dynamics behind fortune-telling and fortune-telling practices and to examine how these practices have become an element of consumer culture through social media platforms. Within the scope of the research, fortune-telling content that gained visibility on social media, especially on the Instagram platform, was observed, and then in-depth interviews were conducted with individuals who followed and interacted with this content. The study was conducted with a flexible and holistic approach and in-depth interview technique was used in line with the qualitative research method. A total of 30 participants, 15 Millennials and 15 Generation Z, selected by purposive sampling method, were interviewed in different channels through structured and semi-structured questions. In line with the data obtained from the interviews, the participants' New Age beliefs, attitudes towards fortune-telling, fortune-telling consumption motivations and the impact of social media on this process were analyzed.