Examining new dimensions of consumption habits based on superpanopticon theory

The information technologies that pervade life with their facilitative aspects are increasingly overlapping with more powerful and comprehensive data collection. At no time in human history has so much information been captured, recorded, classified and turned into a commercial product. We are becoming a superpanoptic society in which our personality, economic status, social relationships, foibles, past experiences and future prospects are documented. Surveillance has become an ordinary activity, while those of us living in a surveillance society often see surveillance as a necessity of modern social life. Surveillance is perceived and ignored as a guarantee of existence, comfort and security, an opportunity or a discount for individuals living in the post-modern age of consumption. As consumption activities move to the internet, our virtual experiences here are transformed into data, especially by forces with technological software and hardware, and these data are used to monitor, control, direct, manipulate and classify individuals. Capitalism operates through information technologies; electronic technologies both open up new investment areas and strengthen their power by claiming rights over the experiences of people who use these technologies. Optimism about information technologies, which pervade all aspects of daily life, that they will make life easier, contribute to democratic development and reduce inequalities by facilitating access to information, is turning into dystopia every day. Surveillance is seen as a subject of science fiction. Our thesis aims to bring a new perspective to the literature as it approaches the phenomenon of surveillance with a different theory. In our study, it is firstly argued that consumption habits are increasingly shifting to the electronic environment, consumption experiences in the electronic environment are transformed into personal data by companies and surveillance is applied through these personal data, which may cause discrimination for real individuals and cause disadvantages for some and privileges for others.