Türkiye’s state language authority has named “digital conscience,” rendered in Turkish as “dijital vicdan,” as its word of the year for 2025, following a nationwide public vote that drew nearly 300,000 votes, the country’s culture minister announced on Dec. 29.
"This word sparks a sobering debate on how, in the digital age, the human conscience is being detached from genuine responsibility and action, reduced instead to a mere 'click,’” Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said in a social media post.
According to Ersoy, "digital conscience” stands out as a powerful term that holds a mirror to the individual and collective sensitivities.
The word was selected through a process led by the Turkish Language Association (TDK) in cooperation with Ankara University’s communication research center, İLAUM.
After an initial nomination phase, five concepts were shortlisted and opened to public voting between Dec. 22 and Dec. 28.
The final list included "digital conscience,” “moral blindness,” “barrenness,” “inactive compassion” and “uniformity.”
Last year, more than one million people took part in the vote, choosing “crowded loneliness” as the word of the year — a phrase describing how social media-driven visibility and constant online interaction can deepen feelings of isolation rather than relieve them.
Türkiye’s choice aligns with a broader international focus on digital culture and its social consequences.
Oxford University Press named “rage bait” as its word of the year, referring to online content deliberately designed to provoke anger to drive engagement.
Merriam-Webster selected “slop,” a term increasingly used to describe low-quality digital content produced at scale by artificial intelligence.
