Curse and internet as a means of social control

Abstract

Many innovations have come to the life of society by technology and some of these innovations have created new cultural areas. Internet has become one of these new cultural areas where cultural codes are produced and consumed. By internet, "reader forums" named social spaces are made up in the virtual newspapers. In these reader forums people address to other people that they do not know and write their own interpretations about the news and read the unknown people's interpretations and even they write responses to those unknown people. Therefore, it is very clear that these internet spaces have become social areas where cultural codes are shared and new codes are produced. It is observed that the concept of curse which has an important place in society carries on its being in these virtual areas. The word "curse" literally has religious connotations. But, does curse have other functions in society? When curses are analyzed according to the social control theory it is observed that curses have psychological and social functions in society. In this article the concept of curse will be analyzed and the function of curse in society will be discussed according to the social control theory. In addition to these, the virtual internet space, which has become a new social area during the changing and conversion period from rural to urban, will be discussed and the place of curse in this new social space will be argued out.