The role of Facebook as an expression area of cultural identity: A study in Karachays living in Eskişehir

The topic of this dissertation is the role of Facebook as an expression area of cultural identity and how Karachays living in Eskisehir use Facebook pages while forming their identities. In order to obtain data about these practices, a total of 100 people in the population were administered a questionnaire. The results revealed that Facebook creates an environment for people to form and express their identities both at individual level and in terms of culture. In addition, most of the participants had face to face relationship in real life with other members of the groups, which proves the socialization function of social networking sites. This result is assumed to be a prediction for further studies on the effects of new communication technologies on individualization and socialization. Due to the proliferation of social sharing websites and the increase of the users, it is suggested to conduct studies focusing on this issue. The current study is limited to Karachays living in Eskisehir and Facebook, an important social networking sites.