Abstract:

In this study, a critical approach to social media was tried on the basis of Hilmi Ziya Ülken's views on the formation of personality consciousness, which he mentioned in many of his works and explained in detail in his book "Aşk Ahlakı'' (Passion Ethics). According to Ülken, there are three types of consciousness, namely the organic consciousness consisting of innate natural impulses, the social consciousness presented by the society into which the human being was born, and the personality consciousness at the highest level, which is synthesized by the conflict of these two consciousnesses in the mind of the person. In order to attain personality consciousness, one must reject neither the desires imposed by organic consciousness nor the responsibilities imposed by social consciousness. a person who has reached the consciousness of personality has managed to create a synthesis in a balance with his own preference, being aware of all these. A developed system where social justice is established is only possible with people who have reached a personality consciousness, that is, who have the morality of democracy. This study argues that social media, which emerged as a result of the development of digital technologies and started to replace real sociality, cannot fulfill the conflict function of social consciousness based on responsibility. Because, by its nature, it tends to be formed in a structure that can only feed and satisfy the desires coming from organic consciousness. Social media, framed by people who are similar to themselves, removes the necessity of being together with the differences that make up the social, and carries the risk of narrowing the horizon by feeding similar messages. Thus, since the social consciousness based on responsibility cannot be fully formed in real social relations, the individual cannot reach the power to fulfill the conflict and synthesis function that should be created, and the formation of personality consciousness becomes difficult. The claim of the study was defended in line with the approach of Hilmi Ziya Ülken, benefiting from the