How Social Network Service Affects Our Society

Nowadays, many people use the Internet, and Social Network Service is becoming more extensive as well. According to the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), in question ‘Do you use the Internet?’ in 2018, only 0.1% of teenagers answered they don’t use the Internet. Except for them, 99.9% of teenagers answered they use the Internet. This rate has shown the same in Twenties and thirties. Likewise, in 2017, they showed the same standards.

▲Rates of Internet users

http://kosis.kr/statisticsList/staticsListIndex.do?menuID=M_01_01&vwcd=MT_ZTITLE&parmTabID=M_01_01#SelectStatsBoxDiv

As stated above, the Internet is an indispensable thing among people these days. With the development of the Social Network Service (SNS), we can see many advertisements are posted on SNS. All of us buy things through it, and items are sold through it. Enterprises also utilize the SNS for their marketing. Most of all, many people make their relationships in SNS. This social flow have made young generations form their groups easier in the cyber community. 

Pros and cons of social network service

There are good effects on the development of cyber communities and social network services. For instance, we can get useful information more accessible and faster than before, and we can get any specific data we want to know at once. There is no doubt to say that this development made human life better and made Korea a leader of IT technology. 

However, we should think about the bad effects, either. First of all, there is too much information on the Internet, which is not identified. When we search for something, we can see lots of data searched together. Some of them can be true, but no one can sure where the information comes from, who wrote it, and which are trustworthy. Some of us can even think that that information is right. This situation makes people having wrong cognition and getting inaccurate information.

Second of all, the guarantee of anonymity makes people hide behind it without their responsibility. When people write comments on the Internet, they don’t need to reveal their real name or personal information, so they tend to write it without their responsibility for their comments. Some of them write intended malicious remarks to a specific person, like celebrities. This phenomenon leads to severe problems, like depression, which can result in suicide. Unfortunately, this worst case happens frequently nowadays.

Recently, Sulli, a singer-actor who was in k-pop group f(x), committed suicide. According to the prosecution, she has been suffered from cyberbullying, like malicious comments. When she uploaded her picture on SNS that doesn’t wear underwear on her top, people blamed about it, and many reporters wrote provocative articles about her to make people read their articles. She said that underwear is just an accessory, and it should not be forced to wear it for women. She also wanted to change the cognition of underwear for women. However, people didn’t focus on what she said. People just focused on ‘the picture’ she uploaded on her SNS. All of these made her stand against them alone, and this social flow made her depressed. Regulation didn’t work, and cyberbullying became worse and worse; after all, she committed suicide in her place lonely. 

Not to let happen again, we should accept the articles and information in critical eyes. Moreover, we should have the responsibility of our comments. Real name policy also can make people have liability for their comments. Most of all, we should have an awareness of all the words we say easily can affect people to feel depressed or be hopeful. 

 Kim So Yeon

<lion8320@kangwon.ac.kr>