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Chat Rooms and Emoticons Aid Personal Connection
The chat room has become an integral aspect of people’s daily lives in hyper-connected Korea. People come together by the dozen to share news, thoughts, and feelings through messages posted on chat windows. Dantokbang, or group chat room, on the free mobile app of the Korean instant messaging provider Kakao Talk, is familiar to every household.
“Hey, guys. I’m feeling beaten down. My girlfriend broke up with me.”
The usually quiet group chat room suddenly comes to life.
“Really?”
“Why?”
“What did you do wrong? Go tell her you are sorry.”
Every time my friends post a comment, my smartphone rings out an alert. Six of my friends fill the chat room with words of concern and advice about my predicament.
Chat Rooms — A New Necessity
It is no exaggeration to say that every Korean smartphone user belongs to at least one group chat room. By no means are they anonymous users interacting with strangers through the Internet; driving the dramatic advances in online technology and their applications are the quantum leaps in people’s work environments, lifestyles, and human relationships that continue to give shape to the many varieties of communication that are available online today. For hyper-connected Koreans, chat room buddies are mostly their friends, family, or people from work.
“I spend very little time with my family because of my work. I sometimes give them a call on the weekend to say hi, but you can only say so much and the conversation is always the same. I set up a family chat room to communicate more easily.”
A woman in her 30s whom I interviewed for this article explained why she uses the group chat room on her phone. She said she left for Seoul to get a job and it has been three years since she moved away from home. She likes how the conversations in chat rooms are quicker, easier, and simpler. She is happy with the new mode of communication because “I can write ‘I miss you’ and ‘I love you’ more easily, whereas these words don’t come so easy to me on the phone. I chat with my family almost every day, so I feel as if we still live together although we are far apart.”
The group chat rooms can also help narrow emotional distance between family members who do live together under the same roof. Words like “thank you” and “sorry” that can be heard frequently among colleagues and strangers are less often spoken among family members. Thanks to chat rooms, these emotions can now be shared through a wide selection of expressive emoticons.
According to the OECD’s “Quality of Life” report published in 2015, Korean parents spent a scant 48 minutes out of the 24 hours each day with their children. This is one-third the average of 151 minutes among OECD member countries, ranking Korea dead last.
Thus it is good to hear that chat rooms can serve as a helpful connection between parents and children who may otherwise be out of touch with each other most of the time. In June this year, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family surveyed 1,000 parents and 635 children in fourth to sixth grades who reside in five metropolitan cities in Korea to find out from each group what qualities they think make a “good parent.” The results showed that children thought “parents they could talk to” were the most desirable parents. Listening to their children and being aware of even little things going on in their lives through family chat rooms brought the parents that much closer to being good parents.
The usually quiet group chat room suddenly comes to life.
“Really?”
“Why?”
“What did you do wrong? Go tell her you are sorry.”
Every time my friends post a comment, my smartphone rings out an alert. Six of my friends fill the chat room with words of concern and advice about my predicament.
Chat Rooms — A New Necessity
It is no exaggeration to say that every Korean smartphone user belongs to at least one group chat room. By no means are they anonymous users interacting with strangers through the Internet; driving the dramatic advances in online technology and their applications are the quantum leaps in people’s work environments, lifestyles, and human relationships that continue to give shape to the many varieties of communication that are available online today. For hyper-connected Koreans, chat room buddies are mostly their friends, family, or people from work.
“I spend very little time with my family because of my work. I sometimes give them a call on the weekend to say hi, but you can only say so much and the conversation is always the same. I set up a family chat room to communicate more easily.”
A woman in her 30s whom I interviewed for this article explained why she uses the group chat room on her phone. She said she left for Seoul to get a job and it has been three years since she moved away from home. She likes how the conversations in chat rooms are quicker, easier, and simpler. She is happy with the new mode of communication because “I can write ‘I miss you’ and ‘I love you’ more easily, whereas these words don’t come so easy to me on the phone. I chat with my family almost every day, so I feel as if we still live together although we are far apart.”
The group chat rooms can also help narrow emotional distance between family members who do live together under the same roof. Words like “thank you” and “sorry” that can be heard frequently among colleagues and strangers are less often spoken among family members. Thanks to chat rooms, these emotions can now be shared through a wide selection of expressive emoticons.
According to the OECD’s “Quality of Life” report published in 2015, Korean parents spent a scant 48 minutes out of the 24 hours each day with their children. This is one-third the average of 151 minutes among OECD member countries, ranking Korea dead last.
Thus it is good to hear that chat rooms can serve as a helpful connection between parents and children who may otherwise be out of touch with each other most of the time. In June this year, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family surveyed 1,000 parents and 635 children in fourth to sixth grades who reside in five metropolitan cities in Korea to find out from each group what qualities they think make a “good parent.” The results showed that children thought “parents they could talk to” were the most desirable parents. Listening to their children and being aware of even little things going on in their lives through family chat rooms brought the parents that much closer to being good parents.
The Downside: On Call 24/7
Are group chat rooms just as beneficial in the workplace?
An employee of the marketing department of a company based in Seoul felt harassed by chat messages from his boss, especially after work. For example, on his way home after a dinner appointment with a business partner, the boss wanted him to report how the dinner went, whether there were any issues, and when the next meeting was going to be. It was long after office hours but the group chat room remains accessible around the clock. If he did not reply to the message, it would be the same thing as ignoring the boss. That is why the group chat room is called a prison at the workplace.
Employees are not free to simply leave the chat room because they are afraid if they are not part of that online space, they may be left out of real-life interaction with their co-workers. It is also true that they often have few other ways of keeping up with the latest information about workplace activities.
The stressed out employee opted for the secondbest choice: turning off the message alerts of the group chat room. He is happy with this so far. “I realized there were so many messages that did not require instant feedback. It did not cause a problem or make any difference when I checked the messages once every hour or two. I also realized that my work productivity and personal life changed for the better after I turned off the alerts.”
A senior member of another company read an article that described how instructions issued by the boss through a group chat room can heighten stress among employees and could actually decrease work productivity. He decided not to use the group chat room to contact his subordinates after work hours, putting himself in the shoes of his staff. It may be a harmless message, but coming from the boss, it may feel like a continuation of work. He notes, “It did not take much thinking to come to such a decision. Wouldn’t a wise boss look after his people and respect their private time after work hours?”
Are group chat rooms just as beneficial in the workplace?
An employee of the marketing department of a company based in Seoul felt harassed by chat messages from his boss, especially after work. For example, on his way home after a dinner appointment with a business partner, the boss wanted him to report how the dinner went, whether there were any issues, and when the next meeting was going to be. It was long after office hours but the group chat room remains accessible around the clock. If he did not reply to the message, it would be the same thing as ignoring the boss. That is why the group chat room is called a prison at the workplace.
Employees are not free to simply leave the chat room because they are afraid if they are not part of that online space, they may be left out of real-life interaction with their co-workers. It is also true that they often have few other ways of keeping up with the latest information about workplace activities.
The stressed out employee opted for the secondbest choice: turning off the message alerts of the group chat room. He is happy with this so far. “I realized there were so many messages that did not require instant feedback. It did not cause a problem or make any difference when I checked the messages once every hour or two. I also realized that my work productivity and personal life changed for the better after I turned off the alerts.”
A senior member of another company read an article that described how instructions issued by the boss through a group chat room can heighten stress among employees and could actually decrease work productivity. He decided not to use the group chat room to contact his subordinates after work hours, putting himself in the shoes of his staff. It may be a harmless message, but coming from the boss, it may feel like a continuation of work. He notes, “It did not take much thinking to come to such a decision. Wouldn’t a wise boss look after his people and respect their private time after work hours?”
Magic Symbols for Fast Communication
“Emoticon” is a portmanteau of the words “emotion” and “icon.” It is a digital communication tool used to denote the sender’s feelings as part of a text message. Emoticons started out as simple combinations of different keyboard symbols suggesting facial expressions. Today, alongside the evolution of mobile data and messaging technology, pictographic (as opposed to typographic) symbols, or emoji, have evolved into everyday means to convey a wide range of emotions, such as joy, anger, love, amusement, surprise, sadness — and a lot more.
The first emoticon I came across was the double caret (^^) which resembles the eyes of someone smiling. One day in 1999, I entered a chat site on my PC and someone typed hi to me with this emoticon. Back then I did not know what this symbol meant and I remember asking for clarification.
With the cellphone’s rise as the predominant device for digital communication, emoticons became so much richer and more colorful. When you are on the move and you want to end a conversation on a happy note, you must have experienced how ^^ works so much better than typing out “I am not upset but I have to go.” Koreans also express sad faces with the Korean vowel combinations, such as ㅠㅠ, ㅜㅜ, and ㅜㅡ, indicating tear drops. They have come to discover a whole new world of emoticons.
With the ubiquity of smartphones, emoticons have evolved into single-character cartoonish symbols which convey the facial expressions or situations users can choose from. Animation brings more expressiveness to the emotions. The emoticons have become so popular that they are even available as character merchandise products. Kakao Talk, a free multiplatform mobile messaging app for smartphones in Korea, has been enjoying bumper sales of its emoticon characters and associated items.
The Kakao Friends flagship store, located in Gangnam- gu, southern Seoul, sells Kakao Talk merchandise. Ryan is the favorite character among female buyers, and many people line up in front of the store to purchase various character items that appear in Kakao Talk. The store employees stand guard at the entrance and control the number of customers allowed into the store so as to avoid overcrowding. On the first day of its opening last July 2, more than 3,000 people flocked to the store, clear evidence of the high level of consumer interest. Within one month, the store attracted some 450,000 visitors. Line Friends, which also competes for market leadership at home, operates 22 character shops in 11 countries, including China, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Emoticons started out as simple combinations of various keyboard symbols suggesting facial expressions. Today, alongside the evolution of mobile data and messaging technology, pictographic (as opposed to typographic) symbols, or emoji, have evolved into an everyday means to convey a wide range of emotions, such as joy, anger, love, amusement, surprise, sadness — and a lot more.
“Emoticon” is a portmanteau of the words “emotion” and “icon.” It is a digital communication tool used to denote the sender’s feelings as part of a text message. Emoticons started out as simple combinations of different keyboard symbols suggesting facial expressions. Today, alongside the evolution of mobile data and messaging technology, pictographic (as opposed to typographic) symbols, or emoji, have evolved into everyday means to convey a wide range of emotions, such as joy, anger, love, amusement, surprise, sadness — and a lot more.
The first emoticon I came across was the double caret (^^) which resembles the eyes of someone smiling. One day in 1999, I entered a chat site on my PC and someone typed hi to me with this emoticon. Back then I did not know what this symbol meant and I remember asking for clarification.
With the cellphone’s rise as the predominant device for digital communication, emoticons became so much richer and more colorful. When you are on the move and you want to end a conversation on a happy note, you must have experienced how ^^ works so much better than typing out “I am not upset but I have to go.” Koreans also express sad faces with the Korean vowel combinations, such as ㅠㅠ, ㅜㅜ, and ㅜㅡ, indicating tear drops. They have come to discover a whole new world of emoticons.
With the ubiquity of smartphones, emoticons have evolved into single-character cartoonish symbols which convey the facial expressions or situations users can choose from. Animation brings more expressiveness to the emotions. The emoticons have become so popular that they are even available as character merchandise products. Kakao Talk, a free multiplatform mobile messaging app for smartphones in Korea, has been enjoying bumper sales of its emoticon characters and associated items.
The Kakao Friends flagship store, located in Gangnam- gu, southern Seoul, sells Kakao Talk merchandise. Ryan is the favorite character among female buyers, and many people line up in front of the store to purchase various character items that appear in Kakao Talk. The store employees stand guard at the entrance and control the number of customers allowed into the store so as to avoid overcrowding. On the first day of its opening last July 2, more than 3,000 people flocked to the store, clear evidence of the high level of consumer interest. Within one month, the store attracted some 450,000 visitors. Line Friends, which also competes for market leadership at home, operates 22 character shops in 11 countries, including China, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Emoticons started out as simple combinations of various keyboard symbols suggesting facial expressions. Today, alongside the evolution of mobile data and messaging technology, pictographic (as opposed to typographic) symbols, or emoji, have evolved into an everyday means to convey a wide range of emotions, such as joy, anger, love, amusement, surprise, sadness — and a lot more.
Snowballing Demand
When asked how much revenue the company has recorded from its recent emoticon sales, Kakao Talk said that it was difficult to provide accurate figures. Instead, data released in November 2015 by the company to celebrate its fourth anniversary revealed that the cumulative number of emoticon buyers jumped from 2.8 million in 2012 to 5 million in 2013, 7.2 million in 2014, and surpassed 10 million in 2015.
The number of emoticons sent by Kakao Talk users is beyond imagination: 400 million emoticons a month in 2012, which then soared to 1.2 billion in 2013, 1.8 billion in 2014, and more than 2 billion in 2015. As of 2015, this translates to 67 million emoticons transmitted every day. (The statistics for emoticons sent are collected by counting the emoticon codes in the users’ SMS transfer database, regardless of type of conversation.)
Today, group chat rooms abound with fresh new emoticons. They only cost a few dollars per set so people are tempted to purchase them whenever new emoticons come out, and teenage users’ enthusiasm for them surely make a dent on their parents’ wallets.
There are tips for smart emoticon shopping. Once a friend of mine constantly pushed me to participate in an event hosted on one of the chat apps.
This friend told me to donate the points earned, emphasizing that I could make donations several times. I could not disappoint him so I sent him my points, which he used to purchase a set of new emoticons.
It is not that everyone is so much into the latest emoticons, or emojis in the proper term. I for one have never bought any of them because I believe I can express myself with just the phone software’s embedded icons that are provided for free. Sometimes I feel guilty even when I use only a limited number of emoticons in chatting because I feel I am not being sincere enough by replacing words with a single emoticon when I am too tired to type the whole text. I remember when I only interacted with emoticons in a group chat room that I did not really want to belong to. Someone made the comment, “I guess Dong-hwan does not want to talk to us.” Well, here is my belated reply: “That is correct. I am not that close to you anyway.”
The article above is courtesy of Korea Foundation (http://koreana.or.kr/user/0004/nd85857.do?View&boardNo=00000613&pubLang=English&pubYear=2016&pubMonth=WINTER&zineInfoNo=0004).
When asked how much revenue the company has recorded from its recent emoticon sales, Kakao Talk said that it was difficult to provide accurate figures. Instead, data released in November 2015 by the company to celebrate its fourth anniversary revealed that the cumulative number of emoticon buyers jumped from 2.8 million in 2012 to 5 million in 2013, 7.2 million in 2014, and surpassed 10 million in 2015.
The number of emoticons sent by Kakao Talk users is beyond imagination: 400 million emoticons a month in 2012, which then soared to 1.2 billion in 2013, 1.8 billion in 2014, and more than 2 billion in 2015. As of 2015, this translates to 67 million emoticons transmitted every day. (The statistics for emoticons sent are collected by counting the emoticon codes in the users’ SMS transfer database, regardless of type of conversation.)
Today, group chat rooms abound with fresh new emoticons. They only cost a few dollars per set so people are tempted to purchase them whenever new emoticons come out, and teenage users’ enthusiasm for them surely make a dent on their parents’ wallets.
There are tips for smart emoticon shopping. Once a friend of mine constantly pushed me to participate in an event hosted on one of the chat apps.
This friend told me to donate the points earned, emphasizing that I could make donations several times. I could not disappoint him so I sent him my points, which he used to purchase a set of new emoticons.
It is not that everyone is so much into the latest emoticons, or emojis in the proper term. I for one have never bought any of them because I believe I can express myself with just the phone software’s embedded icons that are provided for free. Sometimes I feel guilty even when I use only a limited number of emoticons in chatting because I feel I am not being sincere enough by replacing words with a single emoticon when I am too tired to type the whole text. I remember when I only interacted with emoticons in a group chat room that I did not really want to belong to. Someone made the comment, “I guess Dong-hwan does not want to talk to us.” Well, here is my belated reply: “That is correct. I am not that close to you anyway.”
The article above is courtesy of Korea Foundation (http://koreana.or.kr/user/0004/nd85857.do?View&boardNo=00000613&pubLang=English&pubYear=2016&pubMonth=WINTER&zineInfoNo=0004).
