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Internet Discourse 255

computers and guide other adults in cyberspace. “E” in middle
school, for example, designs all kinds of official documents at school
at teachers’ requests. He is much better than his teachers in the
area of computer use. Similarly, “E,” “G,” “K,” and “S” are proud of
building their schools’ Web homepages, thereby expressing their
own creativity. No higher authority orders them to do something,
because the students are the ones who know best regarding the In-
ternet. Authority figures, including the old school principal, comply
with these students’ ideas because the older generation is ignorant
compared to these kids.
In short, the Korean new generation experiences an alternative
identity in cyberspace that they have never achieved in real life. The
hierarchical system of ordinary social reality turns up side down as
soon as Korean students enter cyberspace. In interviews, most stu-
dents claimed that the Internet opened a new world and new excite-
ment. This is not only because the Internet has exciting information,
but also because it provides them with a new experience and an
alternative hierarchy. It is something of an experience of decon-
structing power in reality, especially in Korean society, which is
strongly hierarchical and repressive for young students.
It is the habitus of Korea’s new generation that makes them
partly comply with the dominant discourse and partly resist the old
authority system. Using the Internet is a strategy of the new genera-
tion; a habitus affects people’s minds and living patterns through its
symbolic power, and at the same time it allows for diverse strategies of
resistance. Relying on the cultural power of new technology, young Ko-
rean students attempt to break up the hierarchy of old authority and
experience their new identities in the cyberspace.
But constructing an alternative identity for the new Korean gen-
eration cannot be accomplished without struggle. As Bourdieu points
out, instead of imposing a linear order of structural force, habitus
pertains to struggles on the symbolic level. First, Korean students
face the opposition of their parents and teachers. Although Korean
journalism emphasizes the futuristic role of the Internet, the old
generation is suspicious of the new machine, the computer. In Ko-
rean society, the only value that students must fulfill is study. Inter-
viewees complained that their parents and teachers demanded that
they limit their “play time” on the computer, at least to a specified
amount. Adults usually argue that students can use the computer as
much as they want in the future when they enter universities. Con-
fronting the antagonism of adults, young Koreans resist the value
system of the older generation. In interviews, most students argued