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244 Sunny Yoon

voluntarily participate in power reproduction while subjugating them-
selves to the dominant discourse (Foucault 1979). Their bodies and
souls are trained to be docile in the process of developing technology
and science. The dominant discourse thus becomes the dominant
power/knowledge (135–69). Despite the risk of oversimplification,
Bourdieu identifies Foucauldian power/knowledge as a meconnais-
sance that exercises symbolic violence in people’s lives.
Symbolic violence is not practiced by visible repression or by
mutual communication (consciousness). According to Bourdieu and
Foucault, education and literacy are not means of enlightenment,
but of misconsciousness and control—of habitus. This habitus in-
cludes not only institutionalized education, but all kinds of rules and
orders in daily life which socialize the new generation in a certain
way; how to walk, sit, talk, eat, etc. Bourdieu (1982) calls it physical
hexis, which is similar to the docile body in Foucault’s panopticon
(Foucault 1979). These small rules constitute the habitus which re-
produces existing power. Hierarchical power is maintained by social
distinction. According to Bourdieu, class relations are also inter-
twined with social distinction and symbolic struggles.
This paper will look at the concrete process of reproducing
power by means of habitus (Bourdieu) and micro-politics (Foucault)
in the virtual world of the Internet. I argue that the Internet exer-
cises symbolic or positive power on the new generation by guiding
educational rules and linguistic manners. Contrary to the claims
that the Internet democratizes, my analysis will show that the In-
ternet is not free of power or symbolic violence in Bourdieu’s sense.
As Foucault and Bourdieu argue, it is not visible violence or repres-
sive power that is involved in the Internet. Instead, it is a more sub-
tle form of power practice that induces both resistance and
subjugation. On this view, it would appear that the Internet can lead
either to democratic communication or (cultural) capitalist domi-
nance. Consequently, favoring either direction is pointless unless
one looks at the concrete process of how the Internet functions as the
habitus of people in their everyday lives.
I attempt to uncover this concrete process through research that
examines the everyday use of the Internet by Korean youngsters and
its cultural meaning for them. First, it is clear that Korean journal-
ism has had a great impact on mobilizing Internet use; in particular,
newspaper companies lead the way in encouraging Internet use
among school students. So I begin by examining the discourse em-
ployed in Korean print media concerning the Internet, partly as a
way of uncovering the themes and expectations which enter into the