As digital culture has become central to everyday life, social media stalking has emerged as a notable phenomenon, particularly in romantic relationships. This study examines how attachment styles and perceived parental acceptance-rejection affect social media stalking tendencies among emerging adults. Conducted with a correlational survey model, the study analyzed data from 520 participants aged 18–25 living in Istanbul using correlation and regression analyses. Findings showed that secure and avoidant attachment styles were not significantly related to stalking behavior, whereas anxious-ambivalent attachment was a significant predictor of social media stalking tendencies. Relationships between parental acceptance- rejection levels and stalking behavior were not statistically significant. Accordingly, social media stalking appears to be associated primarily with anxious-ambivalent attachment, while the role of perceived parental acceptance-rejection may be more indirect and requires further qualitative investigation. By empirically addressing a relatively under-researched phenomenon, the study contributes to media psychology.
ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) system developed by OpenAI, offers users an interactive dialogue experience through its human-like responses. The study examines Generation Z's interactions with ChatGPT within the framework of parasocial relationship theory, aiming to reveal how these interactions are interpreted at the individual level. Seeking to explore how users make sense of these interactions, the study employs a qualitative research methodology and a repeated cross-sectional design that compares two independent participant groups with similar socio-economic, cultural, and professional characteristics at two different points in time. The study examines how users experienced two successive ChatGPT versions. The first phase of the research was conducted in 2023 with ChatGPT-3.5 users, while the second phase was carried out in 2025 with ChatGPT-4o users. The findings indicate that ChatGPT-3.5 was regarded as functional in terms of providing easy access to information and understanding questions yet was perceived as emotionally weak and mechanical. Interactions with ChatGPT-4o, by contrast, were experienced as warmer and more fluent.
This study examines analog board games as multimodal semiotic systems that mediate cultural communication and ideological transmission. Rather than treating board games as recreational objects, it positions them as historically situated discursive artifacts shaped by shifting sociopolitical contexts. Through a diachronic framework, the study traces their transformation from nineteenth-century moral pedagogy to twentieth-century capitalist simulations and, more recently, to designs foregrounding geopolitical contestation and decolonial critique. Using multimodal discourse analysis and social semiotics combined with close and comparative play analysis, the research investigates how meaning is encoded through symbolic design, rule systems, and player positioning across purposively selected six games: The Mansion of Happiness, Monopoly, Settlers of Catan, Twilight Struggle, Food Chain Magnate and Spirit Island. Findings indicate that while earlier games naturalize dominant moral and economic worldviews, contemporary titles embed reflexivity and systemic critique within their procedural structures. The study argues that board games function as communicative ecologies in which form, mechanics, and ideology interact to shape cultural meaning.
It is our pleasure to present Issue 70 of ConnectIST: Istanbul University Journal of Communication Sciences. Reflecting the broad and interdisciplinary nature of communication scholarship, this issue brings together diverse theoretical perspectives, research topics, and scientific approaches, with the aim of contributing to ongoing academic discussions in the field.
'Shitposts' are low-quality online content that deliberately adopts a hostile and ambiguous tone. This study examined 1.025 posts shared between 2023 and 2025 on 20 popular shitpost Instagram accounts in Türkiye using qualitative thematic analysis and quantitative content analysis based on 'meaningfulness' and 'topic.' This research aims to evaluate the constitutive characteristics of these posts, their potential for political criticism, and their possible links to extreme right and incel ideologies. The findings suggest that, although the content is not entirely meaningless, it exhibits weak and distorted semantic and formal density and contains strong violent stimuli. Although their potential for political critique remains limited, they exhibit frivolity and aggression rather than a coherent ideology or clear purpose. Various forms of discrimination were identified in 46% of the analyzed posts. These hostile discourses targeting groups such as women, LGBTQ individuals, and ethnic communities suggest potential links to extreme right and incel ideologies, likely fueled by a misanthropic, nihilistic worldview.
