Unlike older generation whose consumption of music was bounded by their local culture, today’s young consumers access music beyond cultural boundaries. Many successful pop music in cyber space attracted billions of listeners from all over the world. The young generation born and raised in the digital age, are often thought to have altered sensory-neural characteristics because of their extensive use of electronic device since early childhood. This study investigates a perceptual saturation hypothesis which posits that in order to capture the young generation’s hard-to-get attention, online music must present a high level of energy and rhythm that is near the point of perceptual saturation. We conducted a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) experiment with sixty-four young adults and found that total cerebral blood volume over prefrontal brain area was higher for a song that presents acoustic intensity near the point of perceptual saturation than a counterpart stimulus with lower levels of acoustic intensity. The degrees of prefrontal hemodynamic randomness decreased significantly while the participants listened to YouTube music that provided high levels of acoustic stimulation. Online popularity, recorded as the number of daily hits, was positively correlated with the total cerebral blood volume and negatively correlated with hemodynamic randomness.
This study focuses developing an effective mission strategy in a cyber culture to reach the new generation in Korea. It asks these important questions: "What are the barrier for the Korean churches in evangelism to the new generation?" "How can Korean churches change their Cyber culture in mission for the unchurched new generation?" In order to answer these questions, data was collected through questionnaires and interviews with members of the new generation in Korea. Both the characteristics of the new generation, and those of the emerging Cyber culture in Korea, were analyzed. Concerns for effective strategies of Korea church mission was an important issues in this study of how best to reach for Christ the Korean new generation. The writer's experience of mission in the Korean context led him to the strategy that the Korean churches need a multimedia mission approach using Cyber culture. Multimedia mission is a challenge for Korean churches seeking to reach the new generation. Korean churches need to be develop the mission strategies using multimedia appropriate for the Cyber culture of the new generation. Such multimedia must be part of an effective mission toward the new generation who embrace a Cyber culture.