TDK voting has ended! The word of the year 2024 has been announced

According to the statement made by the TDK, 7 words and concepts determined by an Evaluation Board consisting of experts in their fields, in collaboration with the TDK and Ankara University Communication Research and Application Center (İLAUM), were presented to a public vote on the Turkish Language Association's website.

The words deemed worthy of voting were determined as "crowded loneliness", "compassion", "alienation", "algorithm", "degeneration", "artificial intelligence" and "digital fatigue".

It was announced that the concept of "crowded loneliness" was chosen as the "word and concept of the year 2024" in the public vote, in which approximately 1 million people participated.

WHY WAS 'CROWDED LONELINESS' CHOSEN?

The Evaluation Board made the following assessment regarding the concept of "crowded loneliness": "In 2024, it is observed that there is an increase in the number of studies showing that people feel lonely within crowds. 'Loneliness', which expresses singularity, and 'crowd', which expresses plurality, which seem to be opposites of each other, can exist at the same time. This situation, which can be explained by sociological, psychological, and communicative reasons, manifests itself in the daily lives of individuals and in the forms of relationships they establish."

Stating that research shows that people have started to feel lonelier with the increase in the use of social media and digital technologies, the statement noted the following:

"Although the importance gained by the number of followers and likes in the social media environment and the creation of a supposedly 'crowded' environment are perceived as a solution to the feeling of loneliness, it produces a result that increases the feeling of loneliness. The fact that the digital world suggests fleeting relationships deepens the feeling of loneliness. On the other hand, individuals who have difficulty establishing bonds due to the ever-increasing pace of life and the weakening of social ties along with increasing human mobility feel lonely in crowds. The fact that there is a large number of people around an individual does not mean that they do not feel lonely. Having family members in the same house does not prevent one from feeling lonely at the same dinner table."

News Source: 12punto