The development of science and technology has been directed towards fulfilling human needs conveniently. Social media is an innovative tool for communication that transcends the constraints of time and space, playing a variety of social roles and having both positive and negative effects.
Since the dawn of the human era, science and technology have been advancing at an unimaginable rate. Science and technology are advancing so rapidly that if people feel uncomfortable doing something, technology that makes it convenient will appear in the blink of an eye. Science and technology are developing in the direction of solving “unmet needs,” or human desires, in an easier and more convenient way, such as transportation that solves the need to move from place to place, or instant food that satisfies appetite conveniently. SNS, which will be discussed in the following sections, can be seen as a result of the development of science and technology to solve the human need for communication and the desire to share one’s daily life.
In a time when communication technology did not exist, direct human contact would have been the only way to fulfill this need. Later, proxies were used to make communication more convenient, and after the invention of writing, letters were used to make communication easier and more precise. Rapid advances in science and technology through the Industrial Revolution made it possible to use the telephone and text messaging to communicate in ways that largely overcame the limitations of time and space. However, telephone and text messaging also had some limitations, such as the difficulty of communicating with multiple people at the same time and the need to share the same time between people who are communicating. As a result, people felt the need for new science and technology that could overcome these limitations, and as a result, SNS, which is the final point of communication that overcomes the limitations of existing technologies, was developed.
SNS stands for Social Network Service and has a dictionary meaning that it is a service that allows people to form human relationships on the web. People post their thoughts about their daily lives or social issues in a space on these web services, and their friends or a large group of people read, respond to, and spread the word to others, creating a vast network of interconnected communication about a topic. These SNSs arose with the development of the Internet in the late 1990s, and are represented by Korea’s Cyworld and the global popularity of Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook. In addition, depending on the individual’s classification criteria, blogs, which are personal spaces on the web, can also be classified as a type of SNS.
In the early days, SNSs had some limitations as a means of communication: they could only be used in an environment with an internet connection, which made it difficult for people who didn’t have much time to spend on a computer or those in areas without internet access to use them. As a result, SNSs could not realize their biggest advantage, which is that they can be used whenever they want, no matter where they are, beyond time and space constraints, and as a result, SNSs formed only small networks and had limited offline influence. However, the situation changed in the mid-2000s, when the development and expansion of wired and wireless Internet networks, as well as the invention and widespread use of smartphones, enabled SNSs to become a perfect means of communication. In particular, the widespread use of smartphones has had the most significant impact, making it possible for people to access SNSs and read and write posts from anywhere, anytime. So, while social media may have started in the late 1990s, it’s only since the widespread adoption of smartphones that social media has truly taken off.
SNS has a tremendous social impact because it is open and free from time and space constraints. Therefore, it shows many positive aspects, first of all, it replaces the role of traditional press and media. News of disasters such as fires and earthquakes, as well as news of incidents and accidents, spread much faster on SNS than on traditional media, and it is possible to convey individual experiences that are difficult to cover in traditional media, overcoming the limitations of traditional media. In addition, SNS has the power to fight against media control, which can cause problems such as “dictatorship, corruption,” and other issues that traditional media do not report due to political issues, and SNS can quickly spread them and turn them into social issues. It can also play the role of a one-person media, in which an individual can post an unfair experience or a positive experience of receiving help on social media, which can be seen and spread by many people, making it a socially resonant issue. SNS is fulfilling the same role as the newspaper office in the Joseon Dynasty.
Second, it complements the shortcomings of representative democracy. Democracy, which is currently adopted by many countries, originated in ancient Athens, where the population was small, so everyone with decision-making power could gather to discuss issues and come up with results. However, modern countries have so many people that it’s impossible for everyone to get together, so they elect representatives to solve problems, which is called representative democracy. In representative democracy, the decision-making power of individuals is reduced compared to direct democracy in the past, where individuals could make decisions on issues directly. Therefore, to compensate for this imperfection, various social manifestations such as individual political party activities and participation in debates appear, and SNS makes it easier and more convenient to do these things. Through SNS operated by political parties or politicians, it is easy to express opinions on policies, express your own opinions on issues, and conduct free discussions. It is possible to bring out active social participation of individuals without spending a lot of money.
Third, it shows the creation of a new culture. The recent T24 festival is a prime example of this. It was sparked by a person saying on an internet message board that he could “pitch a 24-person military tent by himself,” which led to days of debate on the web about whether this was possible. At first, the debate was limited to a few people active on the message board, but the intriguing discussion spread from person to person and across social media, eventually reaching the attention of the Department of Defense and media outlets. A few days later, the author of the article that started the debate set a date and location to demonstrate what was possible, and the response was overwhelming, with some people offering to film the event and broadcast it online, others offering to moderate the event, and others offering to perform. Eventually, the event was named T24 and became a successful festival that attracted about 2,000 people on the day of the demonstration. The media coined the term Social Festival, and it became a good example of how it is possible to create culture through social media.
Of course, there are also negative aspects of social media. Despite the virality of posts, there is a lack of trust in the information, which can be exploited by certain groups to sway public opinion. Another disadvantage is that if you post false information for a specific purpose and spread it on social media, many people who see it may mistake it for the correct information and accept it. Another disadvantage is that it can spread quickly and widely, and you may be embarrassed later. People like athletes, entertainers, and politicians whose public image is important to them can suffer serious damage as a result, which is why Alex Ferguson, manager of the famous British soccer team Manchester United, famously said, “Twitter is a waste of time.” He said this after seeing athletes get into trouble by posting thoughtlessly on social media, only to have it later be publicized and cause them pain.
When you want to go somewhere, the technology to teleport there doesn’t exist yet. We don’t have a capsule that turns into whatever you want to eat when you’re hungry. But when you want to communicate with other people, you can just snap your fingers and jump into a network via social media. There aren’t many technologies in the modern world that represent the ultimate development of a field. Convenience, widespread reach, one-person media, discussion forums, and cultural creation, these social networks have the potential to be many things depending on how individuals use them. Recently, SNG (Social Network Game), which allows users to compete with friends and show off their scores by connecting games to SNS, and social commerce, which is trending these days, can be seen as another development of SNS. It will be interesting to see what other interesting developments this SNS will show in the future.
