The impact of social media within the scope of culture industry on consumer decision-making styles: A study in the e-commerce sector

This study aims to research the impact of social media use on consumer decisionmaking styles in the context of the culture industry. For this purpose, the research covers the topics of culture industry, consumption, social media use, and consumer decision-making styles. Since the beginning of human existence, there have been certain needs to survive. The evolution of human needs from primitive times to the present day has changed in parallel with human progress. With the transformation of the world, new needs have emerged beyond the basic needs of human beings. From a hunter-gatherer society, humans have become both producers and consumers. With the transition to agriculture and animal husbandry, the structure of society began to be built on land. The importance of owning land increased over time, which resulted in the feudal system being established in the Middle Ages. The feudal system, which dominated Europe for many years, began to decline due to social, political, and economic developments. The significant increase in trade in the economic field and the change in existing thought patterns caused these interrelated events to occur. The emergence of a new world view, especially within the framework of the Enlightenment and positivism, and its spread to the masses, formed the foundation of these events. With the Enlightenment, people believed that they could reach correct information through reason and that they could regulate their social life with this information. One of the concepts that arose because of the Enlightenment was positivism. In Europe, where people acted on reason, the Enlightenment led to new discoveries and inventions, and the existence of oppressive religious and political structures in the social field were questioned. By questioning these structures with Enlightenment values, people began to evaluate themselves and their relationships with society, and they began to search for a more liberating and prosperous environment. Because Enlightenment and positivism represent the mind, which rejects emotional biases and traditionalism, acting with reason represents independent free thought. According to enlightenment and positivist thinkers, there are certain factors that hinder the normal operations of the mind, and the leading factors are the institutional and cultural structures of the era. Actions taken by individuals who began to act in accordance with these thoughts began to combine with other dynamic changes in the era, such as the revival of trade, discoveries, inventions, and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. As a result of these, changes both in individuals and in social structures began to foreshadow the change of the existing order in Europe. As a result of this process, the political, social, and economic order in Europe changed, nation-states began to emerge, human rights advanced in the social sphere, and countries that were a part of the Industrial Revolution became the ones who determined the new order in the world. By the 1930s, the Frankfurt School began to make criticisms of this order based on its origin and point of arrival. The criticism is based on the notion that everything that is parallel to reason in a thought system that tries to reach truth, knowledge, freedom, and prosperity with reason can be considered correct. In other words, the extent to which concepts that have some correspondence in reason can be considered correct or acceptable has been discussed. In this context, if events are explained with enlightenment and positivism and are made acceptable to people, it carries the potential to serve a desired outcome rather than the truth of the event. This means that the event is made legitimate through human reason and that human reason is manipulated. Critical theory thinkers precisely at this point argue that the events that are developing in the world that is changing in accordance with enlightenment and positivism values do not bring people much freedom and prosperity, but rather they force people to adapt to the changing world dynamics. Enlightenment and positivism attempt to reach certain knowledge by appealing to reason. Consequently, when social events and problems are dealt with according to these concepts, the results must be certain and in the relevant form. However, trying to put human beings, who are not rational beings, into certain patterns and results objectifies them. This is another issue that critical theory thinkers focus on. In Europe, which was undergoing a new social and economic structure, technological advancements marked the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and the concepts of production and consumption began to gain new meanings. Now, production was carried out through mass production and all products produced could be used by everyone. People's needs were being met. For this system to continue, production and consumption must continue. However, this system that worked until a certain point, was disrupted by the world's first economic crisis, the Great Depression of 1929, when supply exceeded demand. To keep production and consumption going, people must consume more than they need. From that point on, the only way to keep the wheels turning was to manufacture different needs in people. A series of efforts were made by producers to instill in people this awareness since people wouldn't consume otherwise. If you pay attention here, it is seen that this situation, which does not occur naturally, presents itself as a coercion to people; this is similar to the critique of enlightenment and positivism by critical thought theorists. Convincing people of different needs in a rational way serves not to make them think or benefit them, but to serve other purposes behind the scenes. As the points noted by the criticism theorists, the holders of power used the situations explained rationally for their own detriment. Because the message pushed by the order is very appealing to reason and does not display an irrational situation, this ultimately affects people and raises questions about where they are in the decision-making process. For the system to continue, the uniqueness of the person exhibiting behaviors outside their own will is lost, which corresponds to the objectification criticism of critical thought theorists. When all these events continued to the 1950s in the USA, some Frankfurt School thinkers in the USA had the opportunity to closely observe this effort of the system on American society. They witnessed the American society being directed through various means, especially through communication, visual and auditory media. This resulted in the birth of the concept of the culture industry, which forms the scope of the research. Communication and media, one of the most important tools of the culture industry, have not remained the same as before due to other developments. Communication and media tools have advanced with technological developments every day. The invention and widespread use of the Internet has played the biggest role in this. The emergence of social media has taken instant communication to its peak. Everyone in the world has become reachable at all times. This development has not only resulted in personal communication between users but also interaction between institutions, businesses and users in a common area. In a high interaction environment, what is to be conveyed can be easily transmitted and transferred to the parties involved. The development of electronic devices, such as smartphones, as one of the byproduct product of technological advancements, has enabled users to easily access the tools they use in these environments. Thanks to these tools, especially social media, it has become a part of people's daily lives. Social media use, which forms the dependent variable of the research, has been studied in this context. The social media use scale by Jenkins-Guarnieri, Wright and Brian Johnson (2013) attempted to determine the role of social media in users' lives. The research analyzed the change in production and consumption that was discussed in previous paragraphs. Over time, consumers' psychological and emotional needs have been added to their physiological needs. There are multiple internal and external factors that influence the development of these needs in consumers. These internal and external factors affect consumers' behavior and decision making. Consumers, who used to be in a simple process within the scope of basic needs, have found themselves in more complex processes as a result of the impact of these factors. As a result of these processes, consumers have begun to exhibit different behaviors and make different decisions. To understand consumers, their styles that make these processes easier are also studied by researchers. This subject was considered as the dependent variable in this research. To understand the decision-making styles of consumers, the consumer decision-making styles scale by Sproles and Kendall (1986) was used in the research. Sproles and Kendall evaluated consumers in 8 different decision-making dimensions with their scale and tried to understand consumers. The scales that explain the dependent and independent variables and the data from these scales were collected through the preparation of survey questions, one of the quantitative research methods. The online survey application was used as the data collection method in the research. The survey questions were created through Google Forms and were sent to participants. The data was obtained from this survey. 53 questions were posed to participants. Participants answered the questions based on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from "1: I definitely disagree" to "5: I definitely agree". In addition to these questions, socio-demographic questions were also posed to participants. The socio-demographic questions were posed to participants with closedended questions. As a result of all the data, the hypotheses of the research were either accepted or rejected. The data was collected in January 2022. En Europe, où se déroulait une nouvelle structure sociale et économique, les avancées technologiques ont marqué le début de la révolution industrielle, et les concepts de production et de consommation ont commencé à acquérir de nouvelles significations. Maintenant, la production était effectuée à travers la production de masse et tous les produits produits pouvaient être utilisés par tout le monde. Les besoins des gens étaient satisfaits. Pour que ce système continue, la production et la consommation doivent continuer. Cependant, ce système qui fonctionnait jusqu'à un certain point, a été perturbé par la première crise économique mondiale, la Grande Dépression de 1929, lorsque l'offre a dépassé la demande. Pour maintenir la production et la consommation, les gens doivent consommer plus qu'ils n'en ont besoin. À partir de ce moment, le seul moyen de faire tourner les roues était de fabriquer différents besoins chez les gens. Une série d'efforts ont été faits par les producteurs pour inculquer chez les gens cette prise de conscience car les gens ne consommeraient pas autrement. Si vous prêtez attention ici, on constate que cette situation, qui ne se produit pas naturellement, se présente comme une contrainte pour les gens ; cela est similaire à la critique de l'illumination et du positivisme par les théoriciens de la pensée critique. Convaincre les gens de différents besoins de manière rationnelle ne sert pas à les faire réfléchir ou à les bénéficier, mais à servir d'autres fins en coulisses. Comme les points soulignés par les théoriciens de la critique, les détenteurs de pouvoir ont utilisé les situations expliquées rationnellement à leur propre détriment. Parce que le message poussé par l'ordre est très attrayant pour la raison et ne montre pas une situation irrationnelle, cela affecte finalement les gens et soulève des questions sur leur place dans le processus de prise de décision. Pour que le système continue, l'unicité de la personne exhibant des comportements en dehors de sa propre volonté est perdue, ce qui correspond à la critique de l'objectification de la pensée critique. Lorsque tous ces événements se sont poursuivis jusqu'à la décennie de 1950 aux États-Unis, certains penseurs de l'École de Francfort aux États-Unis ont eu l'occasion de observer de près cet effort du système sur la société américaine. Ils ont témoigné de la direction de la société américaine par divers moyens, en particulier par la communication, les médias visuels et auditifs. Cela a entraîné la naissance du concept de l'industrie culturelle, qui forme le champ d'étude de la recherche. La communication et les médias, l'un des outils les plus importants de l'industrie culturelle, n'ont pas resté les mêmes en raison d'autres développements. Les outils de communication et de médias ont évolué avec les développements technologiques tous les jours. L'invention et l'utilisation répandue d'Internet a joué le rôle le plus important dans ce domaine. L'émergence des médias sociaux a porté la communication instantanée à son apogée. Tout le monde dans le monde est devenu joignable à tout moment. Ce développement a non seulement résulté dans la communication personnelle entre les utilisateurs, mais aussi dans l'interaction entre les institutions, les entreprises et les utilisateurs dans une zone commune. Dans un environnement à fort niveau d'interaction, ce qui doit être transmis peut être facilement transmis et transmis aux parties impliquées. Le développement de dispositifs électroniques, tels que les smartphones, en tant que produit dérivé des avancées technologiques, a permis aux utilisateurs d'accéder facilement aux outils qu'ils utilisent dans ces environnements. Grâce à ces outils, en particulier les médias sociaux, ils sont devenus une partie de la vie quotidienne des gens. L'utilisation des médias sociaux, qui forme la variable dépendante de la recherche, a été étudiée dans ce contexte. L'échelle d'utilisation des médias sociaux de Jenkins-Guarnieri, Wright et Brian Johnson (2013) a tenté de déterminer le rôle des médias sociaux dans la vie des utilisateurs. La recherche a analysé le changement de production et de consommation discuté dans les paragraphes précédents. Au fil du temps, les besoins psychologiques et émotionnels des consommateurs ont été ajoutés à leurs besoins physiologiques. Il existe de nombreux facteurs internes et externes qui influencent le développement de ces besoins chez les consommateurs. Ces facteurs internes et externes affectent le comportement et la prise de décision des consommateurs. Les consommateurs, qui étaient autrefois dans un processus simple dans le cadre de leurs besoins fondamentaux, se sont retrouvés dans des processus plus complexes en raison de l'impact de ces facteurs. En conséquence de ces processus, les consommateurs ont commencé à manifester des comportements différents et à prendre des décisions différentes. Pour comprendre les consommateurs, les styles qui facilitent ces processus sont également étudiés par les chercheurs. Ce sujet a été considéré comme la variable dépendante dans cette recherche. Pour comprendre les styles de prise de décision des consommateurs, l'échelle de styles de décision des consommateurs de Sproles et Kendall (1986) a été utilisée dans la recherche. Sproles et Kendall ont évalué les consommateurs sur 8 dimensions différentes de prise de décision avec leur échelle et ont tenté de les comprendre. Les échelles qui expliquent les variables dépendantes et indépendantes et les données de ces échelles ont été recueillies à travers la préparation de questions de sondage, l'un des méthodes de recherche quantitative. L'application de sondage en ligne a été utilisée comme méthode de collecte de données dans la recherche. Les questions de sondage ont été créées à travers Google Forms et ont été envoyées aux participants. Les données ont été obtenues à partir de ce sondage. 53 questions ont été posées aux participants. Les participants ont répondu aux questions en se basant sur une échelle de Likert à 5 points, allant de "1 : je désapprouve définitivement" à "5 : je suis définitivement d'accord". En plus de ces questions, des questions sociodémographiques ont également été posées aux participants. Les questions sociodémographiques ont été posées aux participants avec des questions fermées. En conséquence de toutes les données, les hypothèses de la recherche ont été soit acceptées, soit rejetées. Les données ont été collectées en Janvier 2022.