This study set out to explain the transitional process of the multi-level complex topography of popular humanities, which developed in South Korean society during the era of humanities consumption, from the perspectives of society, culture, and lifelong education. It also made an attempt at an in-depth analysis of the phase transition phenomenon in the ecosystem of popular humanities that was consumed excessively following the reorganized and expanded logic of the recent market under the capitalist system. The study traced the early trajectory of popular humanities in its appearance and emergence in South Korean society and found that the study of humanities was used to replace despair in society when existential risk and anxiety became part of daily life in the form of a lifelong anxious society after the foreign currency crisis and was the product of thirst about the existential (humanistic) questions that exploded accordingly. After recently gaining popularity, however, the content of humanities has expanded across the media beyond offline space and has had its influence transferred to publishing circles, world of culture, and the popular education market. Consequently, the popularization of humanities is changing in its nature as people are now regarding humanities as a product of immense wealth in the market and thus focus the supply of humanities in favorable ways. Following the copy of hit items in popular humanities, the emergence of knowledge retailers, and creation of a new learning culture including lecture livers and audience livers, the consumption market of popular humanities is spreading indiscriminately with the so-called curating function in the front. In the context of the popularization of humanities, the intellectual and cultural capital as well as the popular education market are gaining greater power through their further consolidation into a single group and becoming more flexible and sophisticated. In the era of popularization, the cultural power has become fragmented, moved, and increased in its symbolism through constant movement instead of disappearing, which means colleges and universities no longer have monopoly over the symbolic power. This phenomenon, however, has not gone beyond the meaning of popularizing the knowledge that has become content to meet the eyes of the public and remained at the level of shallow culture. It is creating the diversity of consumption on the surface, but it has not moved forward to the diversity of use value. Finally, the study discussed again the logic of the popularization of humanities and the nature of culture in the context of lifelong learning based on these findings.