Digital vs. analog: contrasting scenes at PyeongChang

U.S. athletes appearing at the PyeongChang Games pose in this photo uploaded on Instagram account @shibsibs, which is run by the country's ice dancers of Maia and Alex Shibutani, Tuesday. / Captured from @shibsibs

By Nam Hyun-woo

Olympians at the PyeongChang Games seem to be fully enjoying the Games and are not hesitating sharing their moments and feelings with their Instagram or Twitter followers.

On the other hand, some athletes decided to isolate themselves from networks in order to give their full attention to their competition.

When the women’s snowboard halfpipe qualification run was underway at Phoenix Park, Monday, a tweet popped up on the feeds of those following U.S. snowboard prodigy Chloe Kim on the Twitter.

“Could be down for some ice cream,” she wrote at 9:11 p.m., just minutes before she went out and scored a whopping 95.50 points in run 2 and sat on top place in the qualification.

Fans are also enjoying the live feeds directly coming from the athletes. To a user named Spencer Hren who asked “Aren’t you competing right now?” Kim replied “yes…”

Username Kevin Park wrote: “Someone get this girl an ice cream sponsorship asap.” And a slew of others sent her images of ice cream.

After Kim’s appetite for the treat went viral, the U.S. Olympic Team account replied to her “95.50 on your second run?? Ice cream is on us!”

Then, the NBC Olympics Twitter account conducted a poll on “What kind of ice cream should Chloe Kim get?” and 48 percent of respondents recommended Cookies & Cream. And of course, Chloe Kim replied to NBC that “Cookies & Cream is some good stuff. If anyone can get me some to the village that’d be dope.”

She continued expressing her appetite on Tuesday that “Wish I finished my breakfast sandwich but my stubborn self decided not to and now I'm getting hangry (a blend of hungry and angry).” And several minutes later, she became the youngest female halfpipe gold medalist in Olympic history at the age of 17 years and nine months, scoring 98.25 points in her final.

Not only Kim, but Olympic athletes and staff are busy sharing their experiences with their followers.

Korea’s ice dancer Min Yu-ra wrote on her Instagram posting that she will “sew myself in for the individual event” after the wardrobe malfunction while on her team event performance.

U.S. skaters and siblings of Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani are also drawing popularity with their Instagram postings, uploading photographs of U.S. skaters, their medals and their experiences at the Games.

The official PyeongChang Games mobile application displays selfies, photos and other postings showing how the participants of the Olympics are spending their times here.

On the other hand, some athletes gave up the fun of using social media and decided to give all their attention to the competition.

According to Korea’s women’s curling team coach, the athletes Kim Cho-hi, Kim Eun-jung, Kim Kyeong-ae, Kim Seon-yeong and Kim Yeong-mi have let the coach to keep their smartphones so they don’t use them.

Since the sport of curling requires strong mental concentration, critical or discouraging web comments may affect their performances, the coach said. Other Korean curlers at the Games have also turned their smartphones over to their coaches.