Abstract:

The increasing use of the internet and smartphones, especially with the pandemic, has led people to spend more time on different platforms. In the researches, it has been revealed that individuals especially youths actively use search engines such as Google, which facilitate the access to information as well as social media platforms such as Facebook (Fb), Instagram, Twitter. In fact, the expressions of “Molla Google” and “Hazreti Google” indicate its extensive usage among youth. However, it is difficult to say that the opportunities offered by the mass communication tools brought by the information age can always be used favorable and correctly. As a matter of fact, the question of what is the extent of the influence of the virtual world on the new meanings that can be attributed to values, especially change and degeneration in values, occupies the minds. Therefore, the problem of identification with values caused by this change, which has attracted attention in young people in recent years, is one of the issues that draw attention in researches. It is argued that the youth’s relations with their families and their environment weakened and they became asocial, and at the same time they have become socialized in the virtual world; values such as respect, love and tolerance have been shaken. In this respect, the studies on the effects of the content provided by the virtual world on the youth’s value perceptions were analyzed. Related articles were classified under two themes. The first of these themes is “youth, religion and digital media”. The second is “youth, value and digital media”. 26 of the articles on youth, internet, religion and value published through the DergiPark system in the last ten years (2010-2020) have been evaluated from the religious education perspective by using the literature review method. Almost all of the studies (with the exception of one) are field studies that present qualitative and quantitative data. In these studies, it was observed that the use of digital media for religious purposes in the relationship between youth, religion and value, marginalization, love-hate-cyberbullying, and privacy as well as internet addiction problem were examined. The border-removing structure of digital media affects the value perception and hierarchy of youth, but it creates an environment of competition and choice besides information pollution. As a result of the researches, it has been revealed that the opportunities offered by digital media may cause fluctuations in the value perception levels. In this context, the problem of supervision of technological tools that bring education and entertainment together, security risks and erroneous learning caused by misinformation, along with being exposed to pornography, images and advertisements in which violence and bad habits are normalized can cause many psychological, social, especially religious and moral problems. Therefore, it can be said that there is a need for new studies that will more clearly identify the value degeneration and for new contents of Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge (RCMK) course that will raise awareness of the youth against these problems.

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