ScholarWorks@중앙대학교

초록

With the emergence of the internet and the increasing use of online communities for over 20 years, the age range of users has also been rising. This study explores the linguistic changes that have occurred as the user age in online communities has increased. To do this, data was collected and analyzed from an online community that has been actively operating, despite new member registrations being closed nine years ago. By comparing the posts over an 11-year period from 2012 to 2022, changes such as an increase in average comments, a decrease in interrogative sentences, and a decrease in imperative statements were observed. The study also proposed loneliness due to aging and a decline in curiosity and confidence as potential causes of these changes. In South Korea, which is rapidly entering an aging society unprecedentedly fast on a global scale, the increase in single-person households has evolved loneliness from a personal issue to a social problem, manifested in an increase in solitary deaths and reclusive individuals. This research sheds light on one aspect of these social phenomena through the analysis of data from a large online community.

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