by REERA YOO | @reeraboo
editor@charactermedia.com
In a move that’s strikingly similar to sci-fi romantic comedy film Her, more than 4 million lonely South Koreans are using a messenger app that allows them to have long, comforting conversations with an imaginary friend.
According to the Chosun Ilbo, about 70 to 80 percent of the app’s users are teenagers, renewing concerns about the mental wellbeing and mounting academic stress of South Korea’s young people.
The mobile app is designed to send positive and supportive text messages to a user who expresses feelings of loneliness and depression.
Psychologists said the app’s popularity is a reflection of young people’s daily struggles with establishing and maintaining relationships with other human beings.
A recent survey conducted by Seoul National University reported that 20 percent of middle school students expressed fear of being bullied, while nearly 60 percent said they have “unstable” relationships with their peers.
“People who feel lonely are desperate to find someone who sympathizes with them and reacts to what they say. It doesn’t matter who talks to them–they just want to hear something from anyone,” Professor Hwang Sang-min of Yonsei University told the Chosun Ilbo.
Earlier this year, South Korea was found to have the “unhappiest” schoolchildren among 27 nations listed in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), according to a survey by South Korea’s health ministry. The two main factors to Korea’s low ranking were academic stress and school violence.
In March, South Korea’s education ministry announced its plans to develop a smartphone app to help curb student suicide. Perhaps the imaginary-friend app will go hand-in-hand with the upcoming government-issued app.
___
Featured image via Daum News
