05 / MA THESIS / RESEARCH

Redesigning Families

How Korean Youth Rewire Sociability Through Platforms and Interfaces

This MA thesis examines how young Koreans use online social media to seek a sense of belonging and intimacy that is often missing within traditional family structures.

Combining participant observation, interviews and interface-based case studies of KakaoTalk and Zepeto, the research explores how specific platform features — avatars, gestures, emojis, memes and ambient communication — mediate new forms of sociality and intimacy online.

Rather than using these tools passively, users actively appropriate and reshape platform structures, bending the intended functions of communication tools to build alternative communities.

The interplay between interface design and user practice reveals how emotional support and recognition, once embedded in family life, are reconfigured through small design-mediated interactions — emoji exchanges, avatar poses and gestures, and the rhythmic flow of group chats.

Read the thesis (PDF)

DATE: December 2025
FORMAT: MA thesis
ROLE: Research, writing, book design
TECHNOLOGY: InDesign, PapeTypeToPrint.js

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