Near East University Social Research and Development Center conducted community analysis.

The Near East University Social Research and Development Center prepared an analysis report on the sociological, psychological, management, technology, education and risk dimensions of the society, revealing where the social trends are trending during the pandemic process.

According to the information provided by the Press and Public Relations Directorate of Near East University, an online panel was held with the theme of transformation, education and technology in order to evaluate the perspective of society analysis from different countries. To the panel, Dr. Steve Wheeler from the UK, Dr. Carmen Holotescu from Romania, Dr. Robert Repnik from Slovenia and Ramesh Sharma from India provided information on changing education and distance education reflections.

In the online panel moderated by Social Research and Development Center co-chairs Prof. Dr. Fahriye Altınay and Prof. Dr. Zehra Altınay, Dr. Steve Wheeler focused on changing theories about active participation in distance education, Dr. Carmen Holotescu shared enlightening projects and research on open sources. Dr. While Robert Repnik emphasized the integration of innovative educational models in his country and abroad, Dr. Ramesh Sharma, on the other hand, drew attention to the importance of the cooperation policies of technologies and strategies in changing societies.

Rural areas with intensive neighborhood relations faced COVID-19...
As a result of the analysis made by the members of the Near East University Social Research and Development Center in line with the panel, the struggle with COVID-19 was started with the application of similar measures taken by the countries of the world, using the advantage of being a small island country. In rural areas, which have differences in terms of population and socio-cultural differences from urban life, it was observed that the transmission emerged in connection with primary relations, while rural areas with more intimate and neighborly relations than urban life experienced this situation as a disadvantage and faced the transmission.

In the analysis, it is seen that the phenomenon of consumption, which includes the society in a wide spectrum, preserves its prevalence in rural and urban areas, while the individual, who does not produce under the influence of popular culture, is in a household environment during a period of desire to consume constantly, and in a way to reshape his/her sociological functions and roles. It was found that it prompted him/her to think. In the analysis report, which has been observed that the individual, who is referred to as an object in social life, tends to reproduce his/her social roles that he has become alienated by moving himself/herself to the subject, and that if the awareness of the individual after the pandemic process can be adapted to every area of social life is a question mark and awaits an answer.

In the psychological analysis, it was determined that social integrity and solidarity increased in this pandemic process that requires physical isolation, thus strengthening the values of individuals to the phenomenon of society, including cooperation and caring for others.

Universal values should be included in education...
When the education dimension was analyzed, it was revealed that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic experienced worldwide, restrictions were made in formal education in many countries and it was decided to carry out formal education practices in order to prevent the pandemic from spreading. It was noted in the analysis report, which states that while individuals with ordinary development adapt to the online education process more easily, the same situation is not valid for individuals with special needs, therefore, family education gains importance in this process and the necessity to include universal values in education reappears in this way.

Technology use reached the highest level during the pandemic period...
Before the pandemic, the use of social media in TRNC was defined as at the normal level in the social analysis report, and the normal level was defined as follows: “Individuals are using social media in order to spend time in their spare time outside of work and communication, as they spent time in social media not to exceed their needs. When we consider the use of technology before the pandemic, the use of technology was enough to make use of free time, except for smart phones and business laptop use.”

During the pandemic process, as the unemployed people stayed constantly inside the house, playing games for entertainment on laptops, watching TV programs, or TV series and movies, and those who continued their work from the home by using the technology, the use of technology has reached the highest level. Besides, it was determined that the unemployed people spent most of their remaining time, especially, on their smartphones, on social media.

In the report, which stated that technology and social media environments before the pandemic in TRNC were mostly used as a support to traditional education, however, this situation changed with the closure of schools during the pandemic and the transition of educational institutions to e-learning, and the use of virtual classroom environments was the highest.

While this situation maximizes the number of people who use technology actively, it has revealed that the element of active learning in education has required the faculty members and students who were not previously intertwined with technology to use technology actively.

Social strategies should be developed about values and digital citizenship ...
According to the results of the social analysis report, society became even more intertwined with technology in the pandemic process. Even everyone's saying "good morning" was moved to digital media. Making use of social media and information technologies, which was formerly a choice, has become a must. Everyone suddenly has become a citizen without digital citizenship education without any analysis of community culture and readiness. Social strategies should be developed in order not to experience low social and educational motivation and to gain values of education, individual responsibility awareness, and digital citizenship in the new world order during the pandemic period.

Community analysis published in the international book study ...
The analysis carried out by Near East University Social Research and Development co-chairs Prof. Dr. Zehra Altınay, Prof. Dr. Fahriye Altınay and center members; Prof. Dr. Gökmen Dağlı, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Bicen, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yağmur Çerkez, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mukaddes Sakallı Demirok, Assoc. Prf. Dr. Behçet Öznacar and specialist Menil Çelebi was entitled to be published as part of an international book study.