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Internet Discourse 257

write, behave and think. It is a symbolic violence that constrains Ko-
rean youngsters in their reading, writing and knowing information.
As symbolic power, language constructs a habitus that makes people
accept what they believe to be the legitimate way of behaving and
thinking in the virtual world system. It is violent in Bourdieu’s
sense, but it symbolically influences people without being noticed.
In the cyberworld, English is cultural capital. In a group discus-
sion, “E” and “S” contended that leaders on the Internet are those
who can speak English well, and that they “are dominating the In-
ternet, even though it is not totally controlled.” In the virtual world,
language marks distinctions between classes, cultures, generations
and mastery of diverse kinds of knowledge. Monetary capital marks
a class distinction between the bourgeois and the proletariat, both
domestically and internationally; in the modern world system, lan-
guage as cultural capital exercises symbolic power over the cultural
have-nots in the virtual world system. English greatly hinders the
access of Korean students to information on the Internet. Cultural
capital provides the most efficient mechanism to induce the volun-
tary subjugation of people in the world at the micro-level, and it also
contributes to maintaining and accumulating economic capital in
the long run. It constitutes the habitus that domesticates people’s
lives at the margin and legitimizes meconnaisance.
Third, the new generation of Koreans is involved in symbolic
struggle in their resisting the negative side of the Internet. Although
young Koreans adopt Internet use as a strategy to practice their new
identity in the virtual world, these students also recognize negative
effects of the Internet. Most students pointed out that commercial-
ism on the Internet is a problem. “A” emphasized that business in-
terests were dominating and using the Internet as a marketing tool.
“A” and “O” agreed that industries released “free” information on the
Internet only because it could no longer be marketed. “C” and “X” (el-
ementary students) said that they would mostly use the Internet as
a marketing tool in the future.
In discussion, all interviewees agreed that indecent material on
the Internet would bring about the most negative effect on students.
“M” and “N” (girls) particularly criticized indecency on the Internet
and the boys who looked at it. Most boys, including grade school stu-
dents, have visited sex sites on the Internet. (In individual inter-
views, some students denied having visited such sites, but in group
discussion, students accused and teased each other regarding their
experiences of viewing indecent materials.) All students perceived in-
decency on the Internet negatively and claimed it had to be stopped.