W2. Why do you think Wikipedia is becoming more accepted? Gyongmin Moon 문경민

To start with the conclusion, I think it's because as time goes by, the number of people who are familiar with the digital world from their birth is keep on increasing, and the number of people who aren't is decreasing. Since I was born in Korea, I'll explain it with the situation that is ongoing in Korea.

South Korea's economy has developed at a significantly fast speed. From the Korean War which was stopped in 1953, it took only about 50 years for S. Korea to become one of the well-living countries in the world. This rapid change affected many parts of the citizens and the media that people accept information has been also affected by it over the past 50 years. In the 1950s, obviously, the information receiving channel that people trust the most was the newspaper and book, since there was hardly a single family with a television in their house. Then it became conventional media, such as television, radio and computer when the year came to the 2000s. Now, as we know, it became the smartphone. And due to this rapid change, currently, in South Korea there are 4 different generation groups of people with 4 different media that each of them are familiar with.

First, the Baby boom generation(born in 1950~1964) who are analog-centered, since they only had books and newspapers from their childhood. Second, the X generation(born in 1965s~1979s) who are both familiar with TV and papers, and so-called the 'digital emigrants'. Third, the Millenial generation(born in 1980s~1994) mostly familiar with computers as information media. Lastly, the Z generation(born after 1995) is familiar with the smartphone as their 'soul media', and they hardly know the analog media, that's why they are referred to as the digital natives.

As more people from the Z generation grow up and become 'informatively independent' from their parents, who are probably the X generation, they started to find the information they need by themselves. Where would they do that? Of course, in their smartphone's W3. Then it is obvious, Wikipedia, which is in W3 and contains enormous yet, trustful information is becoming just the place they can get them.

Like this, the media that surrounds us is keep on changing at a high pace. Some argue that there soon will be a singularity when people can't control the development of technology. In the world like this, what could be the next media that would come to our hands? In that media, what would Wikipedia look like? Would it stay the same, or would it change its form?