This blog post examines the changes in Internet culture and the destruction of communication caused by the distortion of anonymity and community spirit.
Bad Internet culture has begun to emerge. Among them, the most controversial and unending issue is the so-called “hate speech.” The comment function, which allows users to express their thoughts on Internet posts, was originally intended to share opinions and communicate. However, some of these comments are simply malicious slander, rather than expressing one’s own arguments, which is called “hate speech.” Serious hate speech is mainly directed at celebrities who are active in society, and this has led to some celebrities committing suicide and many others suffering from serious depression. Even in the comments section of ordinary news articles, it is common to see people taking sides and fighting with each other. Why has the Internet become such an aggressive space? When did this problem begin?
The Internet in the 1990s was very different from the Internet today. The online world in the early 1990s was a space that valued politeness, just like how people treat each other in real life. At the time, the internet was very slow and the number of people who could communicate was limited. Even when people met other people in distant places, they mainly communicated by exchanging phone calls or letters. Even though anonymity was guaranteed at the time, there was no big gap between the internet and reality. It was just a wider meeting place. However, the internet has now turned into a space where people attack each other everywhere.
The reasons for this trend can be summarized in two ways. The first is the change in the Internet, and the second is the change in individual consciousness. The Internet has developed rapidly over the past 20 years. The biggest change was the increase in Internet speed. The increase in speed has enabled the inflow of a huge amount of information, and this has started to cause problems. The development of the Internet itself was much faster than the speed of change in Internet policy. As a result, inappropriate information and violent content were exposed to people without being properly censored, and people gradually became desensitized to such information. Over time, the Internet became flooded with more aggressive and provocative information, and people became desensitized and indifferent to this environment.
Another problem is the lack of awareness of the spread of false information on the Internet. People often believe unverified information from strangers whose faces and names they do not know. Particularly, the more sensational the information, the faster it spreads, and this information spreads widely through word of mouth. As a result, people accept false knowledge as true and build their own knowledge base based on this. This phenomenon has a particularly strong impact on young people. Young people, whose self and position have not yet been established, easily accept misinformation, suffer from confusion, and make irrational claims.
Anonymity is also an important issue. Thanks to anonymity, a thick wall has been built between people. People do not feel responsible for how their comments affect others. This has led to people behaving more and more recklessly online, and as there are no restrictions on their behavior, they do not hesitate to make hurtful remarks.
Changes in individual awareness are also playing a role. For example, Korea has had a culture that values courtesy since the past, to the extent that it was called the “Land of Courtesy.” However, with the influx of Western culture and the spread of individualism, many people have begun to feel uncomfortable with maintaining good manners. Furthermore, some people on the Internet have begun to view maintaining good manners as a pretentious act. They believe that they should be able to release the stress they have accumulated in real life online to their heart’s content, and this trend has led to more and more people not maintaining good manners online.
In addition, as the courtesy of conversation has disappeared, there are many cases where people simply assert what they know without listening to what the other person has to say. They argue with uncertain knowledge obtained from the Internet, but when they are pointed out that the knowledge is wrong, they dismiss it as mere dislike. As a result, they believe that what they know is the truth and they blindly criticize those who disagree with them.
In addition to this change in perception, a modified sense of community also encourages people’s aggressive tendencies on the Internet. A sense of community is the bond that members of a community feel within that community, and it is an effort to maintain the community. In the past, Korea considered the country itself as one big community and considered it a virtue to live by helping each other. However, with the increase in internet usage, various small communities began to emerge, and conflicts arose between the communities that opposed each other. In the midst of these conflicts, the communities became more and more exclusive, and there were many cases of slandering other communities or even antagonizing their members.
As a result, the consciousness that used to regard the entire country as one community has now transformed into one that regards only the small community to which one belongs as a community. Over time, this conflict intensified, and clashes between communities became more frequent. Furthermore, even people who are not part of a particular community began to fight, divided into two sides that either supported or opposed a single opinion. This distorted sense of community turned the Internet into a place of confrontation.
In addition, the trend of the times has also influenced this phenomenon. In recent years, people who use harsh language and curse at others are often portrayed as humorous or cool in popular media such as TV. However, this is mostly used in a limited way in situations that are scripted, and is not used in real life. However, this kind of behavior is seen as cool by teenagers, and the number of people who imitate it in real life is increasing.
