Navigating the Dark Side of Digital Space

Abstract

Korean culture has continuously entered Indonesia since the 2000s. K-Pop fans (Korean music fans are called) are increasingly rampant in Indonesia and closely related to the stereotype of fanaticism. Teenagers are categorized as the biggest consumers of K-Pop commodities. This is made easier by the development of existing media and technology, for example through social media such as Twitter. The digital space offered by Twitter provides an opportunity for Indonesian K-Pop fans to access various entertainment related to Korea. Digital space with high accessibility and fast interactivity has the opportunity to create the phenomenon of fear of missing out (FoMO), the desire to continue to connect with what other people are doing so that it causes excessive fear or worry of missing out, for K-Pop fans. This study aims to determine the effect of digital space on the Twitter social media platform on K-Pop fanaticism, especially in discussing the phenomenon of FoMO. The results show that the digital space, especially Twitter, has a low influence on the FoMO phenomenon. The magnitude of the influence of Twitter is 34.8%, it can be concluded that the influence of digital space on K-Pop fanaticism belongs to the moderate level of correlation.

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“…The first hypothesis assumed, FOMO components and peer pressure directly influence the Fandom Involvement, but the effect does not appear to the same extent for individual elements of fandom; therefore dimensions of Fandom Involvement were examined separately. The relationship, which was supported by the literature (Ananda & Windah, 2021) is demonstrated by the empirical model: FOMO factors have a direct effect on fandom involvement. The results show that self-esteem has a significant effect on the centrality and self-expression (β=0.274), which is the most complex dimension as it expresses the individual's lifestyle, loyalty (β=0.164) which is operationalised in the context of the study as the intention to revisit Korea soon and to actively participate in fan activities, and attractiveness (β=0.168) as a combination of enjoyment and satisfaction.…”

“…Spending plenty of time in cyberspace with parasocial friends and feeling proximity to them may induce a certain level of fanaticism (Nuralin, 2020 as cited in Ananda & Windah, 2021) and enthusiasm for stars has led to the development of a fandom culture relating to Korean pop idols (Kim et al, 2018). Kwak et al (2021) developed an Online Activity Index of K-pop fans which includes levels of involvement such as joining the fandom, paying per view VLive, watching on-demand videos and YouTube and writing posts in fandoms.…”

“…Not spending enough time on social networking can cause a feeling of Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO), in other words, the fear of omitting a piece of information about her idol or being left out of an idol's activity (Novalika & Kartasasmita, 2022). A high level of interactivity in digital space and live streams of idols may also raise the level of FOMO (Ananda & Windah, 2021) since fans do not want to miss a chance to strengthen their parasocial relationship with their superstars. As K-pop is available worldwide and has worldwide fan groups, new information is available 24/7, so fans who want to be well informed can feel like they cannot miss a minute on social media.…”

“…Fandom activities in different channels of the digital space that delight fans, such as searching for content, posting and re-posting idol-or fandom-related information, content creation, writing fan fiction, visiting official and un-official fan sites (Novalika & Kartasasmita, 2022;Ananda & Windah, 2021;Kwak et al, 2021).…”

“…Previous studies have documented many aspects of K-pop fans' behaviour. Kim et al (2018) describes what products K-pop fans are interested in; Suvittawat (2022) explains how expectations, loyalty, and satisfaction influence their purchase intentions; Nurani and Sobari (2022) report on the brand and advertisement attitudes of K-pop lovers; and the effect of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) on fans has been identified by Novalika and Kartasasmita (2021), Ananda and Windah (2021) and Gracella et al (2021). While all these studies provide relevant information, no integrative model has yet been produced that summarises the factors influencing fans' purchases.…”