Case study 1:

Facebook is one of the most popular social networks of the contemporary age. This network was
created on 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. By having a verified email address, anyone can join,
anytime, anywhere, anyplace. Today there are billions of people around the world who are
members of this social network.
A member can create a personal page, with a profile picture, then add friends and then categorize
those friends into different lists according to the relations and relativities. The main fundamental
thinking behind it was to keep contact with people that we once used to work, study or live with
etc.
There are many different activities that can take place in this social electronic network. Each
activity creates a different environment/ space. These dematerialized spaces are taking us far
from the things and the places and the power that controls those materialized spaces physically.

Advantages
Individual

Increase social interaction

Free of charge
Improving individuals
confident
Accessible any time of the
day
Safe environment for
learning
Connecting to people
anywhere and anytime in
the world
Have a voice
Sharing ones daily life
Entertaining trough other
software
Selective amount of data is
shared
Sharing views. Learn from
each other

Disadvantages
-

Wasting time
Fake accounts and
profiles
Effects on younger
generations education
Laziness
Risk of misinformation
Invading privacy
Copy rights issues on
movie, music and
books etc.
Addictive
The individuals
activities can be
tracked down
Fouls information and
gesture

Group

Finding old friends

Multicultural interaction
Learning about each
others tradition,
language
Motivates peoples to
communicate with
foreign countries
Chances of advertising
for companies
Great for political
promotion
Fan pages, events
Connecting people to
other websites with a
single like button.
Global awareness
information
Citizen participation,
democratic forums and
opinions
Deeper reflection on
online discussion than
face to face process
Online discussion
provides exchange in
different places in real
life experiences
Give a chance to
participants to make
choice on the quality of
their participations
Right contexts on
online discussion give
rise to real life
community gathering

Other fan pages and

groups which abuses
others tradition,
religion and culture ,
creates violence
Others can get
individuals
information and
personal data.
People can lose their
account through false
report
Negative impacts due
to wrong followers

From the records that show many disadvantages of Facebook one can realize that
this popular social network has an impact on peoples daily life, behavior and
relationship with one another. Therefore as peoples behavior would change the
usage of their built environment. Also due to many available free of charge
programs and software, theres an awareness on some of the urban structures.
Facebook structure is almost like a street, or caf bar on the street where people sit
down in a comfortable way and watch others passing by, the activity of sharing

photos, information and different daily activities on Facebook enables the user to
see what other friends and users are doing.

The experiment:
Living in North Cyprus creates an opportunity for me to interact with people with different
nationalities. Therefore I would like to use this for my advantage to make a unique and specified
research.
Out of many different nationalities there are four nationalities going to be chosen. Each
nationality is going to be presented by one person who is the member of Facebook social
network. As part of the experiment each subject will be asked to select fifty friends randomly.
This approach creates an individual understanding of how different people with different cultures
make use of their space. It creates a better understanding of different social activities in different
environments and social backgrounds. The participants are going to be from different locations
and different cultures, therefore this would create a multicultural result.
There are different factors that can be categorized by the effects of technology and social media
on the usage of space. In this research the factors are limited to: Privacy/Personal, Individual/
Group, Existence of other users at any time.
Second part of the experiment will be interviews conducted on users of the physical space
randomly. The number of interviews will be limited. It will be conductive data from different
people who live locally and using their point of view from the impacts of social media on
different spaces.
These group of people are the users of the city, with cultural differences and social demand.
Therefore a multicultural interaction is happening between the users of the environment and the
citizens. Giving an opportunity to experience different cultures, activities, interests and
knowledge.
But its not going to be limited to only physical interaction as also theres a need and a sense of a
belonging to those who live far from home and feel the need to keep in touch with all the
activities and daily events in their own home town. This is possible in the contemporary time
with social network (Facebook).
Users are not just research subjects, they are members of these communities, friends, and
coworkers etc. who are the center of the power in social spaces. By integrating the electronic
networks and architectural structure, spaces and places could be physically created which are far
more intelligent and connected than the existing ones.
Its going to be an exploration through the virtual space (Facebook) and the similarities and
differences with the experience in the physical space. This approach creates a new understanding
of analyzes of the issues that one-self can have in the virtual and the contemporary society. Also
despite the changes due to the impacts of these changes in the contemporary society, there are
possible effects of members on this type of social media.

Participants are the users and members of these communities, with different age groups, different
hobbies and different nationalities. The characteristics of spaces (whether physical or social)
somehow attracts these particular people. Sometimes different activities are happening in a
singular space, which is going to be noted and analyzed.

Case study 2:
This section going to be a physical social space in North Cyprus. Possibly in this section there
are couple of semi-public spaces going to be chosen, regarding to the geographical locations of
the spaces in the city.
Because Cyprus is a touristic island there are many different activities taking place during the
high season. The touristic flow is slowing down regarding to the climate changes. The warm and
sunny weather of Cyprus is one of the most attraction points of the country.
Also this weather condition attracts a lot of immigrants. Some decide to retire in this island and
others decide to have their family here because of the low criminal record and safety. The other
type are permanent residence who are on the island are students here to study. The number of
student are growing year by year.
These groups of people are the users of the city, with cultural differences and social demand.
Therefore a multicultural interaction is happening between the users of the environment and the
citizens. An opportunity to experience different cultures, activities, interests and knowledge.

Advantages
Individual &
groups

Social meeting place

Different activities
Multicultural interactions
Face to face
communication
Meeting new people
Localized communication
Exchange of experience
and information
Relief stress after work
Give a sense of a
belonging to the users
Place of entertainment
People choose their
comfort zone in the space

Disadvantages
-

Addictive
Unexpected crowd
Crowd depend on the
location
Time and space
matters
People might have the
same range of age
Violence due to
alcohol abuse
Language differences
due to the location
Money cost
Limited number of
people

Eating place
Satisfies physical needs

Same local people

Bars in North Cyprus owned by different people with different nationalities due to
immigration, also the touristic future of the island creates a multicultural
interaction. On other hand the location of the bar creates different type of
community. Time is another issue, each bar has its own opening and closing
schedule therefore this makes the usage of the space somehow hard for the users.
The concept of a bar used to be a passage for travelers to freshen up after the
tiredness of a road trip. But the growth of technology has changed the structure of
the bar as well. There are many different activities within a bar like watching sports,
playing darts and nearly every bar has got wireless connection for the users.
Therefore the structure of a bar is not considered just as a drinking place but also
somewhere that people trying to interact with one another. Also tourists go to the
local pub of each area to get some information about the culture of the island,
different places to visit and also meet new people.