This study explores the influence and sociocultural meaning of self-management of South Korean sports stars in the context of their social media activity. The study utilizes netnography to analyze social media posts to determine the meaning of sports stars’ self-management. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with study participants. Ten South Korean sports stars, who are active users of Instagram, were selected as the study participants. Photographs, videos, and stories from their accounts—around 1800 posts in total—were analyzed. The results indicated that the sports stars attempted to share their daily lives on social media to build a close relationship with the public. Moreover, they used their accounts to publicize their commercialized selves and to promote their sponsors. They uploaded only strictly composed and curated posts on their accounts as a form of self-censorship. Finally, it was determined that digital labor was used for self-management on social media, where there is no distinction between public and private territory. A sports star has become a self-living commercial today, and self-management is now a prerequisite for survival. Thus, self-management on social media has become a requirement for sports stars.

这项研究探讨了韩国体育明星在社交媒体活动中自我管理的影响力和社会文化意义。该研究利用网络志分析社交媒体帖子，以确定体育明星自我管理的意义。通过与研究参与者的深入访谈收集数据。十名韩国体育明星，他们是Instagram的活跃用户，被选为研究参与者。分析了他们帐户中的照片，视频和故事（共约1800个帖子）。结果表明，体育明星们试图在社交媒体上分享他们的日常生活，以建立与公众的亲密关系。此外，他们使用自己的帐户来宣传自己的商业化自我并宣传他们的赞助商。他们仅以严格的自我审查形式在自己的帐户上上传了严格撰写和精心策划的帖子。最后，可以确定的是，数字劳动被用于社交媒体上的自我管理，而在公共领域和私有领域之间没有区别。如今，体育明星已成为自给自足的商业广告，如今，自我管理已成为生存的先决条件。因此，社交媒体上的自我管理已成为体育明星的必备条件。