Istanbul, at the middle of Europe and Asia, holds great potential in terms of diversified cultures. The city collects every kind of people.
It is clear, when we consider the last 10 years, that the city has developed and enlarged with pop culture.
While tourism has played one of the most important roles in the cultural development of the city, nothing has been as effective as the soap operas filmed in the city in bringing Istanbul pop culture to the world. At first, some Turkish soap operas were broadcast in Saudi Arabia and made an impact on pop culture there. However, now Arabs are coming to Istanbul to create their own soap operas.
The culture of the city affects Arabs a lot; Istanbul has become something like an iconic city of pop culture for Arabic people.
However, not everything looks perfect, because the city does not seem able to handle all that stuff by itself. The traffic, population and the overwhelmed Turkish culture seem to be going through hard times dealing with pop culture or this “new” culture.
With the new traditions coming to town, old traditions are fading away and we are witnessing a change in culture.
Media is another driving force for this trend. Heavily influenced by mass media, these trends and collections of ideas permeate the everyday lives of the society. By contrast, folklore references the cultural mainstream of more local or pre-industrial societies.
Today’s Istanbul makes the locals wonder how will be life in the city in another 20 years. The new ideas developing in art and in media are changing society’s habits and influencing the future generations.
It becomes more difficult every day to feel a part of Istanbul. The city’s new culture does not let you be “in the city.”
Feeling a sense of belonging to a city sometimes is a must for its inhabitants, but Istanbul makes it impossible with its changing environment and society.
While, the city was an exotic and an easy place to live in the past, today it has become wild and hard. The habits of people who belong to the “new” culture push other people aside.
You start to feel as though the city itself is living and you are living in it without knowing what you are doing or where you are going.
All the soap operas, the developing tourist business, the flow of money and the new culture in Istanbul feed the city, but not with joy, only with the pain of others.