In this blog post, we will look at the development of social media and examine its positive and negative effects on our communication and relationships.
With the world embroiled in a smartphone war, what are the biggest changes in our lives brought about by the advent of smartphones? With over 30 million smartphone users in South Korea, social media is no longer a foreign concept, even to adults. In fact, according to a survey, of the 1.6 hours that smartphone users spend online every day, 1.1 hours are spent on social media. SNS, short for Social Networking Service, is currently expanding its reach to mobile devices and evolving into an ecosystem where most smartphone users, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, end up joining due to its ability to invite acquaintances. In real life, about 70% of people holding smartphones on the subway are using SNS.
According to the latest statistics, social media users mainly access social media through their smartphones. As of 2024, about 82% of social media users worldwide will use social media via their smartphones. However, the concept of SNS existed even before it became available on smartphones, i.e., mobile devices. Looking at the short messages sent and received on KakaoTalk and Line, which are types of SNS today, it may be difficult to distinguish them from text messages that could be sent and received on feature phones. However, SNS goes beyond simple information transmission and encompasses the concept of satisfying individuals’ desire for self-expression, forming social relationships with others, and maintaining friendships. In addition, unlike community services such as online cafes and clubs, SNS is also called “one-person media” or “one-person community” because communication is centered on individual users.
Today, based on the basic concept of SNS as a medium that connects social networks, each service provides various functions beyond its main purpose, such as voice calls and games. As a result, the boundaries of the concept of SNS are expanding, but even in this process of convergence, various SNS with unique features are being launched, each focusing on a single function.
Cyworld, which originated in Korea, focuses on the function of a personal journal, allowing users to upload photos, diaries, and videos of their daily lives and share them with mutual acquaintances, making it a closed network. Facebook, which started at Stanford University in the United States and currently has more than 500 million daily users worldwide, allows users to upload various personal information, similar to Cyworld, but is more open than Cyworld in terms of how information is shared. However, both are classified as “closed SNS” because they are used with existing offline acquaintances.
On the other hand, there are also “open social networking services” that mainly create online connections. Twitter, which allows users to write short messages of up to 140 characters and share photos via links, is currently the most widely used open social networking service worldwide. There are also various other types, such as Foursquare, which shares information about a location based on the user’s location, Instagram, which communicates through photos, and MySpace, where people with similar interests can exchange comments.
On the other hand, services that allow users to connect with a select few have emerged for users who feel exhausted by the use of various SNS and excessive openness. Although these can be broadly classified as closed networks, they are referred to separately as “PNS” (Personal Networking Service) because, unlike the many services described above, which are growing rapidly based on openness and expansion, PNS are created based on limited communication functions due to issues such as personal fatigue and privacy concerns. Examples include Path, which limits the number of registered users to 50, and Between, which is intended for romantic partners but can also be used with a single acquaintance.
With the launch of these various SNSs, their use was initially focused on socializing, but now functions such as games, shopping, and donations have been added. This phenomenon is due to the large user base of social media, which has attracted the attention of companies as a major promotional channel. Companies that operate social media are also trying various ways to find revenue models other than advertising. In addition, social media that connects users who can be trusted is used to share and receive necessary information, similar to searching for information on a portal site.
It is true that the emergence of SNS has brought about many positive changes. With greater accessibility and faster dissemination than traditional media, we are no longer limited to receiving information at fixed times, but can access political, economic, and cultural content at any time by logging into SNS, and can easily reproduce and disseminate it. Due to these positive aspects, SNS is sometimes referred to as a new forum for citizen communication. It can save lives by finding blood for patients in urgent need of transfusions, and it can also influence reality by quickly forming a huge discourse on political and economic issues.
On the other hand, the negative aspects of social media are also gaining attention. There are many cases of damage caused by personal information leaks, privacy violations, and the spread of unverified rumors and horror stories. Recently, with the approval of social media use in elections, there are concerns that it will cloud the judgment of voters through slander and the spread of false information. This is not just a simple phenomenon, but could become a factor hindering the development of democracy. In addition, with the shift of bullying among young people to the online world, there are cases of students suffering from verbal abuse and alienation.
SNS is currently in the process of development and evolution. However, in the end, it is people who use it. We will have to wait and see which of the various services and functions will survive and which will disappear. However, at this point in time, we need to use all these useful inventions wisely so that humanity can communicate better, live in harmony, and develop.
