Everyday Life Practices via Internet and Social Networks: The Micro Field Study on Anadolu University Students

The main concern of this study is to discuss everyday life practices of university students via internet and social networks. With the advent of informational capitalism, advances in information technologies have had an influence on social and everyday life. Moreover, internet and social networks have been internalized most by university students. In that sense, young population, named as digital natives, has easily adapted into information society dynamics; and started to use internet, new media tools and social networks intensively. In that context, determining and interpreting everyday life practices via internet, new media tools and social networks of the students chosen to represent Anadolu University in Turkey sets the purpose of this study. In the framework of theoretical discussions and the purpose of the study, the following main thematic categories are developed: (1) Purposes for Using Internet and New Media Tools in Everyday Life, and Mediated Identities, (2) Excessive Using of Internet, (3) Transformation in Following Daily News, (4) Internet Mediums and Consumption.These categories are interpreted based on the findings collected from semi-structured in-depth interviews with 32 students chosen from Anadolu University to form study group. While choosing the students, systematic sampling technique is used, and only senior students are included in the study. The data collected from semi-structured in-depth interviews are analysed through descriptive analysis. By doing so, everyday practices of university students in the specific example of Anadolu University on the internet and social networks are examined.