In this blog post, we’ll examine the breakdown of communication caused by changes in internet culture, anonymity, and a distorted sense of community.
Recently, negative trends have begun to emerge online. Among them, the most controversial and persistent issue is what’s known as “troll comments.” The comment feature, designed for users to express their thoughts on online posts, was originally intended for sharing opinions and communication. However, some comments, rather than expressing a valid point, simply contain malicious slander—these are known as “hate comments.” Serious hate comments are primarily directed at celebrities active in the public eye, leading to cases where celebrities have committed suicide or many people have suffered from severe depression. It is even common to see people taking sides and fighting with each other in the comments section of ordinary news articles. Why has the internet become such an aggressive space? When did this problem begin?
The atmosphere of the internet in the 1990s was very different from today. In the early 1990s, the online world was a space that valued courtesy, just as people did when interacting in real life. At that time, internet speeds were very slow, and the number of people who could communicate online was limited. Even when people met others from distant regions, they mainly communicated via phone calls or handwritten letters. Although anonymity was guaranteed back then, there was no significant disconnect between the internet and reality. It was simply a broader venue for meeting people. However, today’s internet has transformed into a space where people attack one another everywhere.
This trend can be summarized into two reasons: first, changes in the internet itself, and second, changes in individual consciousness. Over the past two decades, the internet has developed rapidly. Among these changes, the most significant was the increase in internet speed. This increase in speed enabled the influx of massive amounts of information, and this is where problems began to arise. The pace of the internet’s development far outstripped the pace of changes in internet policies. As a result, inappropriate information and violent content were exposed to people without proper censorship, and people gradually became desensitized to such content. As time went on, the internet became flooded with more aggressive and sensational content, and people grew numb to this environment, learning to ignore it.
Furthermore, a lack of vigilance regarding misinformation spreading online is also a problem. People often accept unverified information from strangers—whose faces and names they do not know—as fact. Sensational information, in particular, spreads rapidly and is widely disseminated through word of mouth. As a result, people accept false information as fact and build their own knowledge base on this foundation. This phenomenon has a particularly significant impact on adolescents. Adolescents, whose sense of self and social standing are not yet firmly established, easily accept false information, which leads to confusion and, at times, irrational arguments.
Anonymity is also a major issue. Thanks to anonymity, a thick wall has been erected between people. People do not feel responsible for the impact their comments have on others. Consequently, people have become increasingly unrestrained online; as constraints on their behavior have disappeared, they no longer hesitate to make hurtful remarks.
Changes in individual perceptions also play a role here. For example, South Korea has historically had a culture that values courtesy to such an extent that it was once known as the “Land of Eastern Etiquette.” However, with the influx of Western culture and the spread of individualism, many people have begun to find observing etiquette uncomfortable. Furthermore, some people have come to dismiss observing etiquette online as hypocritical behavior. They believe they must vent the stress accumulated in real life freely online, and due to this trend, an increasing number of people have stopped observing etiquette online.
Additionally, as conversational etiquette has faded, there has been a rise in instances where people fail to listen to others and simply insist on asserting their own knowledge. They engage in arguments based on unverified information found online, yet when their claims are pointed out as incorrect, they often dismiss the criticism as mere nagging. As a result, they come to believe that what they know is the truth and unleash blind criticism on those who disagree.
Beyond this shift in perception, a distorted sense of community also fuels people’s aggressive tendencies online. A sense of community refers to the bond members feel within a group and the efforts made to maintain that group. In the past, South Korea viewed the nation itself as one large community, and mutual support was considered a virtue. However, as internet usage increased, numerous small-scale communities began to emerge, and conflicts arose between opposing communities. Amid these conflicts, communities became increasingly exclusive, and it became common to slander other communities or even treat their members with hostility.
Consequently, the mindset that once viewed the entire nation as a single community has now shifted to viewing only one’s own small community as the community. Over time, these conflicts intensified, and clashes between communities became more frequent. Furthermore, even people who did not belong to any specific community began to split into two opposing camps—those for and against a particular opinion—and engage in disputes. This distorted sense of community turned the internet into a space of conflict.
In addition, contemporary trends have also influenced this phenomenon. Recently, in mass media such as television, people who hurl insults or use profanity are often portrayed as humorous or cool. However, this is mostly limited to scripted situations and does not apply in real life. Yet, to teenagers, this behavior can seem cool, and there is an increasing trend of them imitating it in real life.
