young koreans’ mobile addiction
The Korea Times reports that 1 in 10 minors are addicted to mobile phones in korea.
The state-backed Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion found early last year that roughly one third of Korean students send more than 100 phone messages every day.
Up to 35.4 percent of 704 surveyed students aged between 14 and 24 in Seoul and its vicinity said they are members of the 100-messages-per-day club.
original article here
i was once slapped (not literally) for sending too many txts. that was shortly after my return from korea and i didn’t even realise that i was sending a few too many. well, i don’t think i was, number-wise. i did send a few a day to that particular person (the slapper) but the problem, i think, was the content of the messages, not the number. i was sending short perhaps “meaningless” messages like “damn, my car battery’s gone flat while i was away” or “it’s so hot. i’m melting” etc, a practice i had got used to during my stay in korea. seemed everyone was doing it, and i was quickly absorbed into the whole practice of sending multimple meaningless messages (MMMs!). ok, 100 messages a day sounds pretty excessive. my fingers and wrist wouldn’t be fit (or young?) enough for that kind of wild exercise.
what i found amusing - but not in such a positive way - in the Korea Times article was this part:
“The number of young mobile addicts would be much greater than merely 10 percent,” said Sung Yun-sook, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Youth Development.
“In particular, young students tend to use handset messages too much. We learned this often prompts them to lose concentration on their studies,” Sung said.
whatever young people do to “play,” the issue of it being a “negative influence on their studies” always becomes one of the main problems and a main part of some political and social propagandas. i do understand that it’s part of the korean culture in general - confucian influences are still widely evident in many corners of korea - and that it’s a small country with not so great social welfare system, so you need to start early to work hard to give yourself greater competitive edge. what i don’t really appreciate is the enormous perceived value of “studying, the korean way” - which is focused exclusively on scoring high in the university entrance exam. this value system really kills people, physically, mentally, and emotionally.
graduating from a good university gives you a golden (and probably empty) promise that you will get a good job, and your spouse would be equally great (if not better) in various ways: attractive, educated, well-off, and from a good family. let’s not forget that the general practice of getting married in korea involves the groom(’s parents) getting a place for the couple to live in and the bride(’s parents) filling up the house with everything from toothbrushes to a tv. so the general belief is - regardless of how realistic it is - that you graduate from a top university, you’re set for life (although this once solid belief is eroding). no wonder education is such a significant part of korean life. its adult literacy rate is around 98% (as of 2004) and that of youth is appx 100%, according to the human development report.
enthusiasm in education is a good thing. but over enthusiam in a rigid learning process for unwise purposes really defies the meaning of education. having a girl/boyfriend is not ok for students and thus prohibited by their parents and greatly discouraged by adults in general, because it’s a major disruption to their studies. students don’t get to acquire pragmatic knowledge about sex and sexuality at school or anywhere, really. Result?
original data from here
according to the 2001 UNICEF report, korea had the lowest teenage birth-rate at 2.9 percent. So I assume that the number of teenage abortions must be quite high, if counting illegal operations. enjo-kousai is a growing practice amongst young korean girls - although enjo-kousai mainly stems from the material/consumerist culture, another reason why girls get into this is because there is nowhere for them to go apart from suffocating schools (there’s a good book in korean on enjo-kousai amongst korean youth written by yunju kim-go). and this is one of the main reasons why korean youths constantly look for ways to hang out with other youngsters and entertain themselves in the virtual realm, especially the Internet and computer games.
a lot of my friends in korea say that they want to live in another country, expressing concerns for their, and their (some yet-to-be-born) children’s future in this small, complicated country. i’m an australian resident myself, and i understand their desire to leave korea. in fact, korea is losing thier top brainpowers to other countries precisely for the tough lifestyle it offers - i’ve seen stats but i don’t have them here now). what can be done? well, there is no quick fix. the infamous korean PARIPARI (hurry-hurry) mentality is just NEVER going to work in this situation. one most crucial area to look at is definitely education, and providing “space” where young people can feel free to express themselves, and more importantly, encourage them to be there and play. the number of daily text messages may not drop, but at least there’s a hope that their learning will continue and will lead them to make the korean society a better one.
