Are you connected?
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By Shin Hyon-kook
Thomas L. Friedman, winner of the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award for best non-fiction book on foreign policy, ``The Lexus and the Olive Tree,’’ observed, “The world had become an increasingly interwoven place, and today, whether you are a company or a country, your threats and opportunities increasingly derive from who you are connected to. The globalization system is characterized by a single word: the Web.”
The Economist
has noted, “Today's era of globalization is built around falling telecommunications costs ― thanks to microchips, satellites, fiber optics and the Internet. These new information technologies are able to weave the world together even tighter.” In globalization, the most frequently asked question is: "To what extent are you connected to everyone?"
Korea was once called Joseon
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which from “hanja,” or Chinese characters, for it loosely translates into English as “Land of the Morning Calm.” Joseon experienced tragic invasions from neighboring countries from the north and the east and for a long time adopted strict isolationist policies, thereby being referred to as the “Hermit Kingdom.” American Orientalist
took up this theme in his 1882 book ``
.”
A few years later, Korea was referred for the first time as the Land of Morning Calm by American businessman Percival Lawrence Lowell in his book, ``Choson: The Land of the Morning Calm,’’ published in 1886
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Nonetheless, the Hermit Kingdom or the Land of Morning Calm has transformed into the “land of dynamics,” that is, a nation full of vitality and versatility.
Over the last six decades, Korea has been obsessed with themes of modernization, industrialization, internationalization and globalization. Today, it is regarded as an advanced nation with its semiconductor, automobile, shipbuilding, steelmaking, and information technology industries, considered global leaders in their respective fields. With regards to developments in the information technology sector, Korea is no longer a hermit kingdom or land of morning calm. It is one of the most wired nations in the world. As early as 2005, CNN reported how Korea emerged as the world’s leading digital powerhouse in the global market.
In Korea, there are over 30 million smartphone users, of which over 10 million have access to long-term evolution (LTE) connectivity. Koreans are known to be early adopters. Therefore, the country is an appropriate place to observe the possibility of LTE and other advanced technology applied to real life. However, behind this impressive progress in information technology, there is some negative fallout. To a certain extent, Koreans, especially the young generation, are heavily addicted to their smartphones. They cannot ignore various temptations of ringtones or message alerts.
Nowadays, most passengers on public transportation are found constantly focusing on their smartphones. Passengers reading printed materials or engaging in verbal communication are seldom found. Not only on public transportation, but also in virtually every public arena, people are found sneaking prolonged peeks at their handsets. On the streets, at pedestrian crossings while waiting for the traffic signal to change, they are glued to their smartphones even in that short moment. In restaurants, they have their handsets on and placed next to their plate. They are either sending photos of the food or exchanging text messages about the service at the restaurant. In the bedroom, they place their smartphones next to their beds with it still turned on.
Smart devices are empowering. They put a world of information at our fingertips. However, that convenience has driven us to cling to and hide behind our smartphones. This has resulted in a decrease in actual direct and verbal communication. More and more people are disconnected from friends and relatives and instead, are connected remotely through information carriers. For those who are addicted to their smartphone, this may result in a feeling of loneliness. In Korea, more than 8 percent of smartphone users are presumed to be addicted to their handset. They may be surrounded by people but they are lonely because they are mainly connected online through their smartphones. As was discussed in the 1950 sociological analysis “The Lonely Crowd” by David Riesman, Nathan Glazer, and Reuel Denney, people want to be loved rather than esteemed, not necessarily to control others but to relate to them.
It is important that we break these smartphone addictions. Harvard University professor Leslie Perlow found that high-powered consultants became more productive when disconnected from their mobile devices for a few hours every week. In her book, ``Sleeping With Your Smartphone,’’ she explained how a scheduled disconnecting process might help smartphone-addled employees take better control of both their professional and personal lives.
Perlow’s experiments were undertaken at the Boston Consulting Group, and according to its CEO, Hans-Paul Burkner, the process unleashed by these experiments has proven not only to enhance work-life balance, making careers much more sustainable, but also to improve client value delivery, consultant development, business services team effectiveness and overall case experience.
Temporarily putting aside the smartphone may cause a feeling of missing out or being disconnected from the world. However, by trying to redirect attention, or by engaging in more active and personal communication, one can gradually break not only the smartphone addiction but also symptoms of loneliness in the crowd.
The writer is a chair professor of the Catholic University of Daegu. He previously headed the Foreign News Division of the Korea Overseas Information Service. His email address is shinhyungook@hotmail.com.