[Kim Seong-kon] What should we do with the Web?

The other day when I tried to open my online bank account, I found I could not access my account for some reason. So I called the customer service hotline, and was promptly routed to the bank’s computer security office after explaining my problem. The computer security officer then entered my computer remotely and used his mouse to browse through my files freely, manipulating the whole system from afar. It was indeed a weird feeling ― an invisible person controls your computer as you watch helplessly. Thank God that he was a good man who fixed my online account! Otherwise, I may have lost all of the money I had in the bank. I shuddered at the thought.

As long as we are connected to the Internet these days, as we almost always are, we are vulnerable to viruses, phishing and identity theft. We say we should open up instead of insulating ourselves, and yet the more we are open up, the more we are likely to be exposed to foreign viruses. That is why conservatives and elites do not agree to open up their private lives on the Internet; they want to keep their private spheres undisturbed.

On the Internet, we are often hopelessly exposed to derogatory remarks and vicious criticisms about our work, whether newspaper columns, essays and/or books. Ninety percent of the comments on one’s work may be praise and admiration, and perhaps only 10 percent are criticisms. But the negative 10 percent will surely spoil your mood, powerfully negating the positive majority. The more famous you are, the more criticism and slander you will attract. That is why some sensitive celebrities who cannot bear vulgar, personal affronts on the Internet commit suicide. This brings up the issue of freedom of speech, and the question of whether the internet promotes democracy or anarchy.

When it comes to the Internet, the list of possible problems seems endless. Commercial companies such as Internet shopping malls and mutual funds gather information about us from various sources ― membership information, credit cards, and employment records. Sometimes, corrupt employees sell data to those who are willing to pay the going rate. Other times, their database is cracked by hackers who then pass the private information to the wrong hands.

Recently I read Jeffery Deaver’s “The Broken Window” with great enthusiasm. In the novel, a psychopath gains access to the huge data miner called Strategic Systems Datacorp and uses the information he gained to rape, rob and even murder victims. Then he manipulates the computer system to blame unsuspecting innocents for the crimes he has committed. Using the information he obtains from the database, the killer plants fabricated evidence in order to trap innocent people. Every day, we stare at the computer screen and heavily rely on our computers. But what if the computer breaks or is invaded? Then a thousand problems will arise.

In Korea, another serious problem concerning the Internet is young people’s addiction to computer games. Internet game rooms are on every street corner in Korea, providing a haven for addicted gamers to play all day long, or even for two to three days in a row. According to the statistics, 12.4 percent of Korean youth are Internet game addicts, meaning roughly 1 out of 10 is a game addict in Korea. Perhaps that is why a mischievous foreigner nicknamed South Korea “the Starcraft zombie,” and North Korea the “regular zombie.” In Korea there is even an institution called the “Internet Rescue School,” which operates rehabilitation programs for the growing number of game addicts.

These days, many Korean youngsters spend too much time in PC rooms, where they forget about reality, and instead immerse themselves in the realm of fantasy. In South Korea, quite a few young men are completely cut off from reality and thus stay incompetent and inadequate in the real world. In the fantasy PC world, however, they can transform into heroic, competent figures, capable of saving the world.

I know a person who lived in his fantasy world until he was drafted into the Army. Needless to say, he could not fit in; he could not understand what he was doing in a military camp and thus thought his duties were totally irrelevant to his reality. Soon this game expert was dishonorably discharged, because his superiors were afraid that he might shoot his colleagues, mistaking them as his enemies in a computer game. In Kim Min-young’s novel, “Palantir,” Internet gamers confuse fantasy with reality, killing people in the real world under the delusion that they are in a computer game. Kim’s fiction often becomes reality in Korea, as addicted gamers attack their parents and passersby.

Perhaps the Internet is a necessary evil. We cannot do without it, and yet many problems stem from it. The most important thing we must consider is how we can use the Internet to properly utilize its perks, and minimize its downfalls. The Internet can be either a blessing or a curse, and it is up to us to shape its course.

By Kim Seong-kon  

Kim Seong-kon is a professor of English at Seoul National University and director of the Seoul National University Press. ― Ed.