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Bowling Online: Mobile Social Games for Korean Teen Girls

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Book cover Transnational Contexts of Development History, Sociality, and Society of Play

Part of the book series: East Asian Popular Culture ((EAPC))

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Abstract

Due to their arduous schedules, South Korean high school girls are gradually socializing in online environments such as mobile games. This study explores how Korean high school girls’ mobile social gaming is related to their social networks and social capital. The findings from focus group interviews with 23 high school girls indicate that playing mobile social games helps the interviewees develop their strong-tie relations rather than weak ties. A couple of social functions such as ‘presenting’ or ‘boasting’ induce the interviewees to cooperate or compete with their strong ties constantly, which results in an increase in bonding social capital. Other social functions such as ‘invitation’ entice the interviewees into interacting with their weak ties. However, they interact with their weak ties not for socializing but for earning rewards provided in proportion to the number of interactions. Thus, those behaviors rarely increased their bridging social capital.

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  1. Department of Radio-Television-Film, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Hogeun Seo & Claire Shinhea Lee

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  1. Hogeun Seo
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  2. Claire Shinhea Lee
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  1. Department of Communication, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, Kentucky, USA

    S. Austin Lee

  2. Department of Communication, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, Kentucky, USA

    Alexis Pulos

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Seo, H., Lee, C.S. (2016). Bowling Online: Mobile Social Games for Korean Teen Girls. In: Lee, S., Pulos, A. (eds) Transnational Contexts of Development History, Sociality, and Society of Play. East Asian Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43820-7_5

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