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254 Sunny Yoon

This approach thus attempts to present possible meanings of the In-
ternet for Korea’s new generation through their own interpretations
and voices. This research makes no attempt to represent all Korean
students, nor to generalize its findings. It is rather a special case,
one limited to these sixteen students. It is meaningful, however, to
examine in this way the concrete process of reproducing habitus in
individuals’ everyday lives. Using the Internet is not simply a me-
chanical process of extracting useful information: rather, this use
contains diverse meanings for the young people studied.
Korean youngsters use the Internet not because they need in-
formation, but because they want to be seen as advanced. Most of
the students I interviewed have a positive attitude towards the In-
9
ternet. Yet most of the interviewees confess that they do not need
the information found on the Internet. For example, “E” asked me in
response to one of my questions, “What would be the usefulness of
the Internet? I am not doing business of any kind.” “A” and “B” ex-
pressed a similar idea in interviews. Still, they fantasize about using
the Internet because they want to be seen as elites and new explor-
ers of advanced technology. For example, “M” and “N” (elementary
school students) said that they would like to use the Internet be-
cause they wanted to be viewed differently. “C,” who does not use the
Internet, also said that she had spent a lot of time using PC commu-
nication because it made her look more advanced. In turn, she per-
ceived other students who did not use PC communication as
“primitive.” Now, she spends less time with PC communication be-
cause “so many people use PC communication, there is no scarcity
value. I do not want to spend so much time with them.” (“C’s” case
may apply to more Internet users in the near future: up to this point,
since there are only a small number of the Internet users, they are
proud of being the front-runners of Internet use.)
Although Korean journalism emphasizes the importance of the
educational use of the Internet by mobilizing social movements such
as Kidnet, IIE and IYC, the use value of the Internet is in fact rarely
questioned. By contrast, the students I interviewed acknowledge
that the Internet does not have much use value with regard to their
specific needs. Still, most of them are satisfied with the Internet be-
cause it can give a positive image of their identities.
I would argue, however, that this is not false consciousness. In
fact, Korean students experience new identities in front of comput-
ers. Although they are a minority and are controlled by adults, in
cyberspace the young generation defeats the old one. Even elemen-
tary school students, “B” and “C,” teach their fathers how to use