Top Buzzwords About Marriage Mostly Negative: “Difficult”, “Painful”, “Unfair”. (Image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Concerns over the plunging fertility rate may be deepening as a recent analysis of the most commonly used buzzwords by Nielsen Korea revealed attitudes towards marriage are not improving.
The analysis was conducted from 2014 to May 31 of this year. Utilizing big data technology, Nielsen Korea trawled major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to find the most commonly used words in relation to “marriage”.
The perception of marriage seems to have gotten worse when looking at the top 100 buzzwords from 2014 and comparing them to the same category in 2017. In 2014, “reality” (2,478 posts) and “give up” (842 posts) were the only two negative words in the top 100. This year, there were 15 different words like “difficult” (92,306 posts), “not easy” (50,621 posts), “painful” (30,796 posts) and “worried” (27,135 posts) in the top 100.
In particular, “not easy” shot up the top 100 rankings of most common buzzwords, placing 35th in 2015, 9th in 2016 and 8th this year.
In particular, “not easy” shot up the top 100 rankings of most common buzzwords, placing 35th in 2015, 9th in 2016 and 8th this year. (Image: 123rf)
Furthermore, buzzwords like “unfair” and “feminist” also increased in prominence, a possible allusion to changing social mores in regards to relationships between men and women.
In light of these findings, it is no surprise that “never married” has increasingly become a buzzword that is considered in a positive light.
Nielsen Korea also analyzed buzzwords pertaining to “never married” and found “respect” (17,968 posts) and “wise” (9,183 posts) to be in the top 10 of the most common words. In contrast, words that express dismay like “worrying” (2,910 posts) and “selfish” (1,277 posts) made drastically fewer appearances.
In a statement regarding its findings, Nielsen Korea said, “At this juncture, there is a higher number of posts by the ‘never married’ community in regards to women than men. Based on big data analysis, it is possible to detect a general societal undercurrent of concern as to whether the fertility rate will drop due to the increase in unmarried women.”
S.B.W. (sbw266@koreabizwire.com)
