In this blog post, we will examine the positive and negative effects of social media, a product of science and technology, on communication, democratic participation, and culture formation.
Since the dawn of humanity, science and technology have been developing at a rapid pace beyond our imagination. Science and technology are advancing so rapidly that when people feel inconvenienced by something, technology to make it more convenient appears in the blink of an eye. Science and technology are developing in a direction that makes it easier and more convenient to satisfy human desires, or “unfulfilled desires.” Examples include transportation, which satisfies the desire to move from one place to another, and instant foods, which conveniently satisfy the desire to eat. From this perspective, social media, which will be explained in this article, can be seen as a result of technological advances that satisfy people’s desire to communicate and share their daily lives.
In an era when communication technology did not exist, direct encounters between people were the only means of satisfying the desire to communicate. Later, people used intermediaries to communicate in order to satisfy their needs more conveniently, and after the invention of writing, letters made communication even easier and more accurate. Then, with the rapid development of science and technology through the Industrial Revolution, communication that greatly overcame the constraints of time and space became possible through the use of telephones and text messages. However, telephones and text messages also had some limitations, such as the difficulty of communicating with multiple people at the same time and the need for people to share the same time while communicating. Therefore, people felt the need for new science and technology to overcome these limitations, and as a result, social networking services (SNS) were developed as the ultimate form of communication, overcoming the limitations of existing technologies.
SNS stands for Social Network Service, which is a service that allows people to form relationships on the web. When you post your daily life or thoughts on social issues on this web service, your friends or an unspecified number of people can read your posts, reply to them, and share them with others, creating a vast communication network where many people are connected to each other through a single topic. SNS emerged in the late 1990s with the development of the Internet, and representative examples include Cyworld in Korea and Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook, which are popular worldwide. Although it depends on each individual’s classification criteria, if we take a broader view of SNS, personal spaces on the web, such as blogs, can also be classified as a type of SNS.
Early SNS had some limitations as a means of communication. This was due to the fact that they could only be used in an environment connected to the internet, making them difficult to use for people who did not have much time to use computers or those in areas without internet access. As a result, the greatest advantage of SNS, which is that it can be used anytime, anywhere, regardless of time and space constraints, could not be realized, and eventually, SNS formed only small networks, resulting in little influence offline. However, the situation changed in the mid-2000s with the development and expansion of wired and wireless internet networks and the invention and widespread use of smartphones, which enabled SNS to become a perfect means of communication. The spread of smartphones had the most significant impact, as it enabled people to access SNS anytime, anywhere, and read and write posts. Therefore, although SNS began in the late 1990s, it can be said that SNS in the true sense of the word began with the spread of smartphones.
SNS has a tremendous social impact due to its openness and lack of spatial and temporal constraints. As a result, it has many positive aspects, the most notable of which is that it has replaced the role of traditional media. News of disasters such as fires and earthquakes, as well as news of incidents and accidents, spread much faster on social media than on traditional media, and social media can convey individual experiences that are difficult for traditional media to cover, thus transcending the limitations of traditional media. In addition, social media has the power to counter media control that can cause problems such as “dictatorship and corruption.” Issues that are not reported by traditional media due to political reasons can be quickly spread through social media, turning them into social issues. It can also play the role of one-person media, where an individual can post their experiences of injustice or positive experiences of receiving help on social media, which can then be seen and shared by many people, creating social consensus on the issue. In this way, social media is performing a role similar to that of the Sinpung in the Joseon Dynasty.
Second, it compensates for the shortcomings of representative democracy. The democracy currently adopted by many countries originated in ancient Athens, where the population was small, so all those with decision-making power could gather to discuss issues and reach conclusions. However, in modern countries, the population is too large for everyone to gather, so representatives are elected to solve problems, which is called representative democracy. Compared to direct democracy in the past, where individuals could make decisions directly, representative democracy reduces the decision-making power of individuals. Therefore, various social activities, such as political party activities and participation in debates, have emerged to compensate for this imperfection, and social media makes these activities easier and more convenient. This is because it is easy to express opinions on policies through social media operated by political parties or politicians, and to express one’s opinions on issues and engage in free discussion. It is possible to encourage active social participation by individuals without incurring significant costs.
Third, it shows the creation of a new culture. A recent example of this is a festival called T24. It started when someone posted on an internet bulletin board that they could set up a military tent for 24 people by themselves, and a debate ensued online for several days about whether this was possible. At first, only a few people active on the bulletin board were involved in the debate, but this interesting debate spread through social media and eventually gained widespread attention, even attracting the attention of the Ministry of National Defense and the media. A few days later, the author of the original post set a date and location to demonstrate whether it was possible, and upon hearing this news, some internet users responded enthusiastically, saying they would film it and broadcast it online, while others said they would emcee the event or perform. Eventually, this event was named T24, and on the day of the demonstration, it became a successful festival with about 2,000 people participating. The media called this a “social festival,” and it became a good example of how culture can be created through social media.
Of course, there are also negative aspects to social media. While posts can have a huge ripple effect, the reliability of the information they contain is often low, and this can be exploited by certain groups to stir up public opinion. This is because when false information is posted for a specific purpose and spread through social media, many people who see the post may mistake it for true information and accept it as such. Another disadvantage is that even if a post is made without thinking, it can spread widely and quickly, causing trouble later on. People such as athletes, entertainers, and politicians, whose public image is important, can suffer serious damage to their image as a result, which led Alex Ferguson, manager of the famous British soccer team Manchester United, to famously say, “Twitter is a waste of time.” He said this after seeing athletes cause problems by writing thoughtless posts on social media, which were then reported in the news, causing them to suffer.
There is still no technology that allows us to instantly travel to a place we want to go. There are no capsules that can turn into the food we want to eat when we are hungry. However, when we want to communicate with others, we can instantly access a network through social media with just a tap of our fingers. There are not many technologies in modern society that show such ultimate development in a single field. SNS, which shows various aspects such as convenience, one-person media with a wide ripple effect, a forum for discussion, and a place for creating culture, has the potential to become even more diverse and wonderful depending on how individuals use it. Recently, a new form of social media called SNG (Social Network Game) has emerged, which allows users to compete with their friends and show off their scores. The currently popular social commerce can also be seen as a development of social media. It will be very exciting to see what other interesting developments social media will bring in the future.
