The city of connections: urban social networking in Seoul

Abstract

This paper investigates intersections of youth, technology, and urban space in Seoul. It examines what the author calls 'transyouth': in the South Korean context, they are between the ages of 18 and 24, situated on the delicate border between digital natives and immigrants in Prensky's [22] terms. In the first section, the paper sets out the technosocial environment of contemporary Seoul. This is followed by a discussion of social networking processes derived from interviews conducted in 2007-8 with Seoul trans-youth about their 'lived experiences of the city.' Interviewees reported how they interact with and within the city's unique environment. The paper develops a theme of how technosocial convergence (re)creates urban environments and argues for a need to consider such user-driven spatial recreation in designing urban technosocial environments. This is explored in three spaces of different scales: Cyworld as an online social networking site; cocoon housing - a form of individual residential space which is growing rapidly in a number in Korean cities - as a private living space; and u-City as the future Seoul.