Yujin Cha
Division of Communication & Media
Everyone knows that COVID19 strengthened individualism in a global society.
Yet some people neglect how much it solidified the individual connections itself.
Some of the 2023 trend keywords were:
R : Redistribution of the Average
A : Arrival of a New Office Culture B : Born Picky, Cherry-sumer
B: Buddies with a purpose : Index Relationships
I: Irresistible! The New Demand Strategy
T: Through Enjoyment : Digging Momentum
J : Jumbly Alpha Generation
U : Unveiling Proactive Technology
M: Magic of Real Space
P : Peter Pan and the Neverland Syndrome
[출처] 대한민국 정책브리핑(www.korea.kr) _트렌드코리아2023
As written, at least in Korea, there is a trend of isolation in a societal range. They say the COVID19 quarantine has pushed people to distance each other for their own sake. There is no getting around the fact that the crowd has dispersed and the party culture has weakened. Advanced internet technology and virtual workspace supported behind this phenomenon. Meanwhile, the web connection has also made it possible for people who have the same interest to gather around in their own cyberspace. Of course, this network existed way before the COVID19 situation. Nonetheless, one of the main causes that encouraged the mass citizen to create an even stronger bond apart from the public is undeniably the quarantine; It made people lonely.
Experts have always warned against the self-confirmation of individually customized algorithms. During the quarantine, the internet world was probably the only source people could make any interaction with the real world. Their outlook must have been mostly focused on the interest the algorithm has found for them. They would find the people who seem to understand them, forming small communities. Making bonds with others through the internet itself is not a problem. But when people with the same values continue to revalidate each other again and again, it is very easy to fall into the well without notice. If one gets trapped in this tenet, one might assume the ideas of others are unworthy; the lonely cycle causing conflicts begins.
We have to admit naming and framing frequently happen regardless of gender, age, etc. The seniors call MZ, and frame them as ‘the ones who are young and rude.’ There are also names for the seniors such as ‘꼰대.’ There are names for almost any characteristic a person could possibly have, and we generalize them neglecting who that person is. We all do it because it makes ‘me’ part of the group where I feel comfortable. The way how we certify where we belong is by dividing ‘us’ and ‘them.’
Do not get me wrong that close friendships make us narrow-minded. What matters is becoming a blind theist who abandons all differences. Indeed there is no right or wrong answer to the attitude toward discrepancy. To avoid such ignorance we have to admit that ‘I’ might be too narrow or too obsessed with something. There is the whole ahead of us full of unexpectant encounters, and we will probably not know any of it just until we actually face them. Try to talk through without being afraid to express opinions with others. If you want your opinion to be respected, do respect other ideas openly and others will respond back.