On Friday, Aug 16, representatives of our Foreign Students World Reporters Program had the great honour to welcome Mr Hwang Sungjin, CEO and founder of "ShareNcare", to the office of the Next Generation Leaders Forum for a long-awaited special lecture on digital marketing and content sharing in the era of hyperconnectivity. Mr Hwang’s charisma and positive energy set the pleasant tone of the lecture right from the start by sharing short introduction remarks with each of our foreign students reporters. To break the ice, he jokingly underlined that the special lecture which was conducted only for our Foreign Students World Reporters' team was the smallest audience he’d ever given conferred with, in comparison to his previous experience with presenting in front of hundreds of people. In response, we promised not to let him down and bring out positive energy during the interactive part of the talk as much as a big crowd would usually do.
The two-hour lecture entitled “The Life Wisdom of Foreign Students in the Era of Hyperconnectivity” (“초연결시대 유학생 삶의 지혜는?”) was focused on the meaningful and the interesting that comes from sharing and involvement in the digital era. It started with a discussion about the positive and the negative aspects of the phenomenon of hyperconnectivity. Hyperconnectivity, a term invented by Canadian social scientists Anabel Quan-Haase and Barry Wellman, originates from their studies of person-to-person and person-to-machine communication in networked organizations and networked societies such as those we live in today. To put it simply, Mr Hwang introduced the term by giving an example from our everyday lives, namely that back in the days before we were all a smartphone-sent text message away from each other, people seem to have kept their arranged appointments more faithfully. Since there was no easy way to get in touch with others to cancel a meeting in the last moment, people weren’t even tempted to do so. Nowadays, however, situation is somewhat different and appointments tend to be cancelled, delayed and changed more often than not due to the convenience of reaching out to our acquaintances in no time with just a tap on the touchscreen. So, even though we understand that the hyperconnectivity gives us endless opportunities and makes our lives easier in various ways, undoubtedly, there is a dark side to it as well.
Nevertheless, since the aim of our Foreign Students World Reporters' team is successful sharing of information across countries and cultures, the lecturer focused on the positive aspects and possible benefits that the era of hyperconnectivity brings to the table. Therefore, Mr Hwang decided to emphasize on the most basic and yet most important question that first comes to mind when discussing sharing content – "Why?". While preparing for the special lecture of an expert such as Mr Hwang, our young reporters expected to be instantly equipped with the 'how-to' tricks of the trade. However, as Mr Hwang suggested, once we fully understand the basic concepts, meaning and structure of SNS marketing, everything else that follows is just technical skills to put what we have understood into practice.
The first thing we learned was that in the times we live in, each individual represents their own media (“개인 = 미디어”). Our lecturer explained us the meaning and importance of this concept through the popular example of the musician Dave Caroll and his song ''United Breaks Guitars'', following his real-life dispute with the United Airlines after they refused to take the responsibility of breaking his musical instrument. Moreover, concerning the topic, he also mentioned and discussed in depth the significance behind the well-known phrase - "The medium is the message", coined by Marshall McLuhan and introduced in his book "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man" (1964). McLuhan worked on many media theories and, as a visionary ahead of his time, among other things he managed to predict the World Wide Web 30 years before it was invented. During this part of the lecture, it was underlined that the circumstances in the media world that are known to mankind today are occurring exactly as he had predicted them, and that the era of "media by individuals" has already began (blogs, vlogs, YouTube creators, Instagram influencers, etc.).
The next concept we looked into was originally elaborated on by Mark S. Granovetter, whose research of interpersonal ties entitled "The Strength of Weak Ties" (“약한연결의 강한 힘”) explains that in various fields such as marketing, information, science and politics, weak ties (acquaintances) tend to make it possible to reach populations and audiences that are usually inaccessible via strong ties (family, close friends). Also, in regards to human relations, the lecture was crucial for realizing the difference between the times when people's position in society was defined by the question "whom I know" as opposed to today's era where the emphasis has shifted towards “who knows me”. In relation to this, Mr Hwang spoke about the differences in the structure of various social networking services and the importance of utilizing each of them in the right way in order to achieve most efficient results. He also introduced his professional contribution to the field with the story of “ShareNcare” (쉐어앤케어), a project which is behind him now, but was useful for connecting countless NGOs in need with CSR companies that were able to provide the necessary funding, to the mutual satisfaction.
After further discussion and example analysis, the concluding message of the lecture came down to – “sharing leads to involvement, involvement leads to change” (“공유는 참여를 이끌고 참여는 변화를 이끈다”). The captivating contents of the special lecture and the exclusive professionalism of the lecturer Mr Hwang Sungjin inspired our Foreign Students World Reporters' team leaders to try and implement what we have learned, to keep dreaming of new ideas and challenges and, most importantly, to keep sharing and stay involved. Our team thanked Mr Hwang for the amazing lecture and as the talk came to its end, we made a promise to meet at least once again and dig into the matter even deeper.
Finally, by sharing the contents of this special lecture, our team would also like to invite more foreign students interested in the same cause to participate in the Foreign Students World Reporter project. We are planning to open the recruitment for new reporters soon, so please stay tuned as more information about it is soon to be available.
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