The effects of social media on social movements related to continuity and break theory: for example: Gezi Park

Student Movements, started to occur in the whole world, especially in Western countries, and Civil Rights Movement, emerged in America, have led to a significant change in social movements in 1960's. Therefore, decline of old class-based movement and emergence of "New Social Movements" title instead have started to expressed. However, this change brought about a new discussion in the social sciences. Some social scientists stated that there was an important "Break" between the old and new movements, while others claimed that the old and new movements were in a "Continuity" relationship with each other. In this study, in which aspect of Gezi Parkı cases, experienced in Turkey, is in continuity relationship with old movements, and in which aspect it expresses a break from the old movements and represents a new type of movement were discussed through old and new categorized movements. In this sense, the profiles and organizational forms of the movement participants were examined to clarify the discussion. The role of social media, which has taken our daily life together with technological advancement, on deformation of social movements, which has emerged in different geographies, spread all over the world by domino effect and eventually captured to Turkey too, was discussed. In this context, the virtual public space emerged in social media, and its function in understanding the social movements in the old and new distinctions are interpreted through the Gezi Parkı. Keywords Social Movements, Break Theory, Continuity Theory, Gezi Parkı Protests, Social Media