Participation and Privacy perception in virtual environments: the role of sense of community, culture and sex between Italian and Turkish

TL;DR

This study investigates how perceptions of participation and privacy in virtual environments are influenced by cultural factors, sense of community, and gender differences between Italian and Turkish populations.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of privacy and social involvement perceptions across Italian and Turkish cultures in virtual settings, highlighting cultural influences.

Findings

Cultural differences significantly affect privacy perceptions.

Sense of community influences social engagement.

Gender impacts perceptions of privacy and participation.

Abstract

Advancements in information and communication technologies have enhanced our possibilities to communicate worldwide, eliminating borders and making it possible to interact with people coming from other cultures like never happened before. Such powerful tools have brought us to reconsider our concept of privacy and social involvement in order to make them fit into this wider environment. It is possible to claim that the ICT revolution is changing our world and is having a core role as a mediating factor for social movements (e.g., Arab spring) and political decisions (e.g., Brexit), shaping the world in a faster and shared brand new way. It is then interesting to explore how the perception of this brand new environment (in terms of social engagement, privacy perception and sense of belonging to a community) differs even in similar cultures separated by recent historical reasons, as for example in Italian and Turkish cultures.