Among smartphone users, 24.2% in the high-risk group
YouTuber Ji-bi Yoon “Reduce the time wasted on unnecessary relationships and focus on me”
‘Excessive overpayment’ (過猶不及). Perhaps the most necessary word for modern people living surrounded by digital media. With digital technology, information, goods, and friends can be easily obtained as if shopping.
As offline activities are put on hold after Corona 19, more people are gathering in front of online. The idea that they are connected is temporary, and there are also invasions of privacy, such as exposure to fake news or unnecessary information, advertising text messages, and spam calls that were not considered insignificant. However, my eyes are tired and my wrists and fingers are strained, but I can’t stop. This is because the moment you take your eyes off your smartphone for a while, there is information that only you do not know, and you are worried that you may be alienated from the trend. As a result, the words digital stress, digital addiction, and digital dementia arose.
According to the results of a survey on the digital information gap, web accessibility, and smartphone dependence in 2021 announced by the Ministry of Science and ICT this year, the proportion of smartphone users in Korea at risk for dependence was 24.2% last year, 0.9 percentage points from 23.3% in 2020. increased. The National Information Society Agency has also created and presented a website where you can check your addictions in fields such as the Internet, online games, and smartphones.
Accordingly, interest in digital detox is growing naturally to reduce side effects and use digital devices wisely.
As the harmful effects of digital addiction increased, digital detox related products appeared. Applications that allow parents to control their children’s smartphone usage time, and special glasses that protect their eyes from computer and smartphone screens have emerged. Travel products to treat digital addiction have also appeared.
Se-hee Hong, who lives in Incheon, does not use a smartphone at all, but she does not use SNS other than KakaoTalk. She doesn’t even have apps with overlapping functions. There are times when she is urged to let her friends tag her on social media, but she has no intention of opening up an Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook page. Cyworld was the last social network service he did.
Hong Se-hee said, “I don’t wonder how people live. When I see my friends staring at Instagram meaninglessly, I don’t know why they’re watching what other people are eating. But I don’t know why I’m doing something productive or living a better life in that time. I can’t say that, but I don’t want to spend more time looking at how other people live than me. “I don’t feel the need for social media at all,” he said.
His friends said he would create an Instagram account to post pictures of the baby when he had a baby, but his predictions were shattered. Hong Se-hee declared, “I plan to make a separate photo album with the photos I took with my smartphone. I also think that when a child grows up, they may not like having their photos posted publicly. I have no intention of making an SNS in the future.”
Eun-sun Lee has an SNS account, but she does not use it very often. Lee Eun-sun said, “Now, SNS is more for viewing funny videos and information than for showing me. To post on Instagram, you have to take good pictures with ‘Insta sensibility’, so it’s burdensome and there aren’t many content to post. It is used to post things that you want to brag about, so its existence itself seems unnecessary.”
He said, “Digital detox has a wide range of not only SNS but also news, shopping, books, and movies. Don’t you use digital? There is a limit to reducing it, and if you don’t use it at all, the common denominator disappears. Balance I have a strong idea that I should use it well in line with it,” he said about his thoughts on digital detox.
Companies have also conducted a digital detox campaign to publicize the growing emotional instability and negative effects of indiscriminate use of digital social media. Cosmetic brand Lush Korea held a ‘Digital Detox Day’ to commemorate World Mental Health Day on October 10 last year, in which no access to social network services (hereinafter referred to as SNS) was allowed. I emphasized the message to log out of social media for a while and focus on myself.
There are campaigns abroad that recommend digital detox. Non-profit organization ‘Reboot’ in the United States and Adbuster, a cultural movement group in Canada, are developing ‘digital detox days’ or setting up digital detox weeks. British multinational company Begin has also announced a policy for all employees to cut off e-mail for at least two hours a week, freeing up time to focus on creativity and personal well-being.
Yoon Ji-bi, a YouTuber who succeeded in digital detox by deleting Instagram for 8 months, said, “I started dreaming and making my dreams come true. While she was not on Instagram, she sat at her desk and started writing manuscripts on the computer, and a publisher contacted her. She also said that while she was writing the manuscript, she looked for government-funded projects, and she applied to a place called Gyeonggi One Creator and was accepted.”
He continued, “Secondly, my concentration on life has increased. I found out that Instagram, which I open from time to time, reduces my concentration on life. After I deleted Instagram, I started to focus on conversations with the people I was with, and paid attention to the moment we were together. As my concentration on life increased, I came to love my life more.”
Lastly, he revealed that the relationship he had organized after quitting Instagram led his life positively. Yoon Ji-bi said, “I spent a lot of time on Instagram in unnecessary relationships. For example, there were many cases such as paying attention to people who are not close to me or commenting on people I am not close to. I hope you should try it at least once in your life,” she recommends digital detox.
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