Mekân Ne Moruk, Ekranda Takılıyoruz

Today I tried to count how long I didn’t stare at the screen. Guessin’ like two hours… maybe not, who knows? ‘Cause the rest of the time I was just gettin’ dragged through news feeds, social media notifications, short vids, and some lost emails. My link to the real world? Eh, probably just a faint memory in my head. What news is real, what’s fake? What’s just some algorithm trick, what actually happened? Now you need a mental filter to tell ‘em apart, but most of the time that filter’s busted. Even walkin’ down the street, I can’t really catch the flow of time or the details around me. Sometimes I’m lookin’ at a place through my screen and go like, “Yo, what is this mess?” Back in the day, a place’s texture, light, and sound actually hit you. Now? What you see through the screen either ain’t real or changes so damn fast your brain can’t keep up.

I remember goin’ to basketball games with my fam when I was a kid. The chants from the stands, the ball hittin’ the hoop, the crowd’s hype… You felt it with the place. Now I’m sittin’ alone watchin’ the game in my room. Every 30 seconds, a commercial cuts in, and in the corner, bets and scores are dancin’. Famous footballer Hakan Ünal, jet-set Ajda Hanım, and those bet girls shoved in our faces. Got so used to it I barely notice anymore. Back then, the game’s hype came with the place, the crowd, the energy there. Now I watch alone and sometimes forget I’m even watchin’ the game. Social media, algorithms, constant distractions… everything’s so fast, you can barely feel the real experience. And it ain’t just sports. How I connect with people, what gets my feelings goin’, it’s all digital now. Instead of feeling a place’s energy, we’re livin’ through screens and simulations. And sometimes I’m like, “When the hell did this happen to us?”

Digital stuff’s even messin’ with architecture. Physical places are important, sure, but now people’s digital spaces matter too. VR rooms, interactive virtual museums, game worlds… all digital places, and user experience is key. Makes me think of the 15th-16th century explorers sailin’ from Europe to America. Chasin’ gold, new lands, steppin’ into the unknown. We’re on a similar journey now—but the new land ain’t physical, it’s the damn Matrix itself.

Our attention and curiosity are glued to screens. Our time, focus, and ideas are shaped by algorithm-driven virtual spaces. Like European explorers huntin’ for gold, we wander through this digital world. But here’s the thing: understandin’ the reality, the social and physical context? Harder than ever. Maybe the value of real places only hits us when we step away from digital stuff for a bit. But even those rare moments are shrinkin’. Human experience, space, perception—they’re all shapin’ on a digital map now, and we’re clickin’ through it like gold-huntin’ explorers.

And here I stop and ask myself: are we still living in places, or are we just gettin’ lost in screens and this Matrix?”