Abstract:

Social life is rapidly transforming thanks to new communication technologies. Today, when digitalization has reached its peak, the age of exposure to screens is gradually decreasing, while the time spent in front of the screen is increasing. Since the amount of time children spend in front of the screen is quite high, today's media, socialization tools such as family, neighbourhood and peer circle, and life experiences spread over many years are being replaced by series and videos watched on digital platforms. In this study, the Kısmetse Olur program broadcast on YouTube was examined in the context of Postman's conceptualization of 'The Vanishing of Childhood' and quantitative and qualitative methods were used together. In the research, the negative effects of Kısmetse Olur, which is prepared for adults but has become a program that children watch more on the YouTube platform, on children are discussed and the changing and transforming structure of childhood with the spread of digital technologies is drawn attention. In the first part of the study, a questionnaire about YouTube viewing habits was applied to 570 eighth grade students living in Sakarya. In the second part, the transcripts of the conversations in the videos of the Kısmetse Olur program, which was found to be the most watched production on Youtube by children, in 11 episodes of 29 hours and 45 minutes with a total of 62 million views, and a total of 90,049 comments written by the viewers under each episode were analysed using the MAXQDA 2022 analysis program with the In Vivo coding method, one of the qualitative content analysis methods. According to the findings of the study, 35.9% of all speeches and comments contain words under the categories of "Humiliation/Slang/Subculture", "Sexuality/Outward Appearance", "Marriage/Deception/Money". It was also found that "appearance" was shown as overly important and encouraged, and in the dimension of sexuality, the lifestyle of a certain subculture was encouraged. The findings of the study, such as the fact that it is among the favourite channels of children and introduces children to adult agendas such as marriage, relationships and sexuality at an early age, and that parents' awareness of supervision is not sufficient, suggest that the destruction of childhood on YouTube is being watched.

Keywords: