What are Netizens?
People who detroy lives.
It's only been last year that I was so passionate about the netizens topic that I suggested to our group that we do a video depicting the emotional and mental hurt caused by these internet citizens, who post hurtful comments and thus resulting in many suicide cases in Korea.
Suicide might be the far end of the polar but no one can deny the emotional scars the netizens leave behind. It's a game of making the person feel guilt and telling them they're not worth it. With that, they might resort to listening to what the thousands of netizens are telling them--to end their lives, that they don't deserve to stay/live.
The story goes, netizens dug up old (and I mean 4 years ago old) myspace comments of a convo between 2PM leader JaeBum and his friend in the States. He had apparently said some negative things about Korea and its people, causing a huge stir of netizens wanting to bring him down from his leader position. There were much hurtful comments from anti-fans as well as netizens, asking him to leave Korea, and that he's not good enough to be 2PM's leader.
Seeing his mistake, JaeBum had written an official apology but the netizens haven't had enough fun yet. While international fans made petitions to support JaeBum, the netizens in Korea had their own petition--to get JaeBum to commit suicide. Shockingly, there were thousands of netizens who actually signed this petition.
This was three days ago.
Today, JaeBum posted on his fancafe stating that he regrets what he did and that he is officially leaving 2PM. News spread and some netizens had "regretted" what they did, saying that he didn't HAVE to resign as leader and go back to the states; that he only needed to hold on for a few more months for the incident to die down. For the most part, most netizens thought it was a wise action, television stations followed suit and news of programs with JaeBum was either being held back or edited. Ah, I forgot to add that all the flaming and negative comments towards JaeBum was deleted from the internet by the netizens themselves, leaving only the good comments.
From then things got bigger, JaeBum was sent on a flight back to Seattle, with the entertainment company deciding to NOT give an official press conference to explain the situation.
For me, I read the supposed "negative" things he has said about Korea was actually not really negative because I understood how he meant "Korea is gay" by giving a negative connotation to it, and not literally meaning Korea is GAY. It was badly badly translated as the literal meaning in Korean--a comment these aforementioned patriotic netizens took as personal--causing this hoohaa. Also, netizens have conveniently left out a positive comment he made about living in Korea, which is more recent compared to his supposed "negative" comment.
Sigh, personal feelings towards this group aside, the netizens have shown their ugly face again. What does this outcome even tell the netizens? That they CAN control people's lives? One foot in the wrong door and you're dead if you're caught. I can list many cases of people who are famous and unfamous, who have committed suicide due to the pressure of netizens and antis. I would so do a thesis on Korean fandom and Netizens--it's so scary, it's beyond words.
I really hope JaeBum comes back. *sighs*
It's only been last year that I was so passionate about the netizens topic that I suggested to our group that we do a video depicting the emotional and mental hurt caused by these internet citizens, who post hurtful comments and thus resulting in many suicide cases in Korea.
Suicide might be the far end of the polar but no one can deny the emotional scars the netizens leave behind. It's a game of making the person feel guilt and telling them they're not worth it. With that, they might resort to listening to what the thousands of netizens are telling them--to end their lives, that they don't deserve to stay/live.
The story goes, netizens dug up old (and I mean 4 years ago old) myspace comments of a convo between 2PM leader JaeBum and his friend in the States. He had apparently said some negative things about Korea and its people, causing a huge stir of netizens wanting to bring him down from his leader position. There were much hurtful comments from anti-fans as well as netizens, asking him to leave Korea, and that he's not good enough to be 2PM's leader.
Seeing his mistake, JaeBum had written an official apology but the netizens haven't had enough fun yet. While international fans made petitions to support JaeBum, the netizens in Korea had their own petition--to get JaeBum to commit suicide. Shockingly, there were thousands of netizens who actually signed this petition.
This was three days ago.
Today, JaeBum posted on his fancafe stating that he regrets what he did and that he is officially leaving 2PM. News spread and some netizens had "regretted" what they did, saying that he didn't HAVE to resign as leader and go back to the states; that he only needed to hold on for a few more months for the incident to die down. For the most part, most netizens thought it was a wise action, television stations followed suit and news of programs with JaeBum was either being held back or edited. Ah, I forgot to add that all the flaming and negative comments towards JaeBum was deleted from the internet by the netizens themselves, leaving only the good comments.
From then things got bigger, JaeBum was sent on a flight back to Seattle, with the entertainment company deciding to NOT give an official press conference to explain the situation.
For me, I read the supposed "negative" things he has said about Korea was actually not really negative because I understood how he meant "Korea is gay" by giving a negative connotation to it, and not literally meaning Korea is GAY. It was badly badly translated as the literal meaning in Korean--a comment these aforementioned patriotic netizens took as personal--causing this hoohaa. Also, netizens have conveniently left out a positive comment he made about living in Korea, which is more recent compared to his supposed "negative" comment.
Sigh, personal feelings towards this group aside, the netizens have shown their ugly face again. What does this outcome even tell the netizens? That they CAN control people's lives? One foot in the wrong door and you're dead if you're caught. I can list many cases of people who are famous and unfamous, who have committed suicide due to the pressure of netizens and antis. I would so do a thesis on Korean fandom and Netizens--it's so scary, it's beyond words.
I really hope JaeBum comes back. *sighs*
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