The process of consumption and identity construction shaped through fan culture on social media

With technological developments and the diversification of social media platforms, many fields have experienced change-transformation and concepts have been redefined. This change has started to be taken into account in research. Fan culture, consumption and identity construction have also been affected by this change. Celebrities created by social media networks have been included in fan culture. An individual has become a social media celebrity through the number of followers, the content they produce, etc. The admiration for these people has started to play a role in the individual's consumption behavior and identity construction process. This study examines the admiration for influencers, who are defined to influence their followers with their content and lifestyle, and the role of this admiration in consumption and identity construction processes. Consumption, which has changed with popular culture and become hedonistic beyond the need, has been encouraged by social media and celebrities. Likewise, identity has shifted from a fixed state to a fluid state that can be changed with the effects of the postmodern era and digitalization. Influencers play a role in these identity processes of individuals, inspiring and setting an example. The qualitative research method was adopted in the study and two-stage semi-structured interviews were conducted. In the first stage, influencers were interviewed about their admiration, their thoughts about their fans, their role in the process of consumption and identity construction, and content analysis was applied to the data obtained. In the second stage, volunteer participants who were fans of these influencers were interviewed. The data obtained from the interviews about the thoughts and admiration of the fans towards the influencers and how they participate in the consumption and identity construction process were analyzed by content analysis. It was concluded that fans are directed towards consumption behavior on the axis of the concept of fan culture and that they take these influencers as examples in the identity construction process.