The making of neo-Confucian cyberkids: representations of young mobile phone users in South Korea

Abstract

This article addresses how young people are represented in popular discourses of mobile phone technology and what this representation implies for the local positioning of youth. After reviewing the ways in which representations of youth and technology have been discussed in previous studies, the research reported in this article analyzes different discursive constructions of young mobile phone users in South Korea between 1997 and 2002. The study finds that the different streams of discourse in government documents, the mass media and consumer culture appear to reflect widespread anxieties in Korea about becoming involved in ‘global’ material culture and seek to counter this tendency through rearticulating hegemonic social relations.