Reading the city and rediscovering it through social networks

With the technological developments of today, wireless networks have become widespread, mobile devices and new media usage have increased, and they have become an integral part of life. Along with this process of social structure, the way of organization has been reshaped, and institutions and individuals connected through networks have formed the network society. The new social order, facilitated by wireless network technologies and new media, has led to changes in the perception of space, moving beyond physical spatial definitions. New spatial definitions such as cyber, virtual, augmented, and hybrid spaces have emerged. At this point, in addition to the physical spatial experience, new spatial experiences have begun to be lived. In order to understand architecture, it is essential to first understand the social structure, space, and city. With the help of new spatial definitions produced through the network society technologies of widespread information and new media, it has become possible to be online at all times in urban areas. Media has transformed from a consumption product into a production environment. As users share and interact through media, the concepts of time and space have changed, making it possible to be present anywhere, anytime. While urban areas continue to maintain their physical presence, new spatial definitions, location-based services, and shared data through social networks have transformed the physical city environment, experiences, and daily life practices, blurring the boundaries between physical and digital spaces. The main discussion of this study revolves around reading urban and spatial experiences through city users and urban explorers. In today's social structure, urban experiences can be realized through different methods such as social networks, augmented reality applications, and games. In order to understand this transformation process, the concept of the network society has been explained, and the technologies developed in relation to the network society have been detailed. Changes in spatial definitions are explained, and the relationship between technological infrastructure in urban areas and the city space is interpreted. The urban and spatial experiences of explorers have been explained and detailed. The place of urban experience in the literature has been examined. The data collection phase of the study involves physically experiencing the city, comparing the methods of experiencing the city with today's technological changes, and exploring how virtual experience methods have developed, identifying the differences and analyzing their advantages and disadvantages. As a result of the study, the connection between technology, the city, and the user has been revealed, and the question "How possible is it to explore and understand the city through mobile devices and social networks?" has been addressed. The positive and negative aspects of these new methods of experiencing the city have been questioned. The relationship between developments in technology and daily life practices, as well as their reflection in urban areas and the individual's relationship with the city, has been investigated.