Instead of joining a community, an increasing number of people are preferring to spend time alone. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 23 (Korea Bizwire) — The majority of young South Koreans between 20 and 30 years of age have chosen to live the life of a ‘voluntary outsider’, who chooses not to mingle with others.
Instead of joining a community, an increasing number of people are preferring to spend time alone.
Job Korea, an online job search portal, conducted a survey of 5,060 men and women between 20 and 30 years of age, 61.8 percent of whom described themselves as voluntary outsiders, up by 17.8 percentage points from a 2017 study.
Among them, job seekers were most likely to see themselves as voluntary outsiders (68.4 percent), followed by office workers (60.3 percent) and college students (58.1 percent).
The number of voluntary outsiders among office workers, in particular, has jumped by 22.9 percentage points over the past three years.
Voluntary outsiders scored 7.5 points out of 10 in terms of livelihood satisfaction.
A bit more than two-thirds of outsiders appreciated not having to deal with peer pressure and living out their lives independently.
Others were tired of human relationships (29.2 percent), worried about the coronavirus (20 percent), chose to focus on getting a job and prepare for national certification exams (14.4 percent), and were uncomfortable spending money on business dinners and gatherings (13.8 percent).
One third of respondents, however, said they regretted being a voluntary outsider, mainly because they couldn’t obtain shared information on job preparations and tests (43.6 percent), they were perceived to have social problems (42.4 percent), and they had no memory of college parties to share (32.7 percent).
Almost half of the respondents had a positive view towards voluntary outsiders, because they don’t have to stress out over relationship problems (59.3 percent), they can save money (44.5 percent), and focus on job applications and tests (43.3 percent).
Among those who had a negative view towards voluntary outsiders, 59.1 percent believed that the behavior was the result of overgrown individualism, followed by those who were worried that voluntary outsiders could make their lives at work and society more difficult (47.8 percent).
Roughly 90 percent of respondents believed that the number of voluntary outsiders will continue to increase. Only 10.8 percent responded otherwise.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
