Does Turkey rank end of the queue in sophisticated internet usage?
Some believe that Turkey has covered great distance in internet usage …
Because for instance they believe Turks now rank among the very top group in watching videos, sharing pictures and videos and “sophisticated comments and messages” on Facebook and also writing on Twitter.
The case is much different however, reports have shown…Internet celebrating its 20 th year in Turkey, experts have diverse opinions on what has been achieved so far; Nevertheless all agree the country has a long way to go, yet.
The number of Internet users has indeed grown to almost 30 million, based on reports by the Turkish Information Foundation, or TBV in parallel to the increase in computer usage.
With the advancing technology, more people and institutions benefit from the facilities the Internet offers.
It dominates almost every aspect of life, from job advertisements to newspapers, from shopping to chat, from keeping journals and watching movies and playing games to storing data. However the delay in the liberalization of the market, the low speed of broadband connection and its expensive price compared to developed countries is preventing the expansion of Internet, according to the foundation.
Besides contributing to social life, the Internet has also become an indispensable tool in countries’ economies, according to the TBV. However, the foundation said the proportion of internet users in Turkey is far below the desired level and is currently at roughly 30 million. The average in European Union countries is 65.3 percent of the population, 76.3 percent in the U.S. and only 34.5 percent in Turkey, according to the data from the TBV.
Increasing Internet use rate should be a government policy but there are attempts to prevent citizens from reaching information, the foundation also said. “The prevention of the access to the Internet is limiting fundamental rights and freedoms.”
In fact we can see that freedom of access to information has emerged to be a future key issue (if not present) for the progress of internet in Turkey. For instance, the Internet in Turkey can be banned by the authority very easily.
As for the beginning, unlike Europe and the United States, the progress of the Internet was slow at the outset in Turkey, though it has increased with time.. Still some believe the level the internet has achieved in Turkey has been promising so far and they also comment that the introduction of new technologies as a result of improvements in infrastructure has enabled the internet to reach a level to respond to the needs of wider audiences. Technologies like ADSL and 3G have certainly made great impact on the expansion of internet to achieve figures like 6 million ADSL subscribers, 14 million PC and 30 million Internet users, and 66 million mobile phone users in Turkey.
It is recorded that within the last five years, internet usage has risen 263 percent, and the average weekly internet use is 7.3 hours.
It is also forecasted Turkey has Europe’s seventh largest online community, and one in each three households has the Internet. That is a good reason why internet can and should be considered a significant infrastructure investment on the path to social welfare and economic development.
This bring us to the conclusion establishments operating and services rendered in this sector are an indispensable part of the local economy, as well as global certainly.
To recap, in spite of all the development recorded so far, Turkey has a long way to go and especially in the sense that the internet population lacks the necessary knowledge and education to use this siginificant tool of our time, in a most effective and useful manner rather than spending all their time on social platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
18.04.2012
Editor, BTT
