"Beyond the Monitor, Cheers to Your Health"... Everyone Joins #JipkokChallenge #HwasaengMukbang

ICT-Based Social Distancing Trends

Jiyeon Kim, who is working from home, and her colleagues are raising cans and bottles of beer in front of their monitors, toasting during an online drinking party held on the evening of the 26th via the video conferencing platform Zoom.

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Cho] "This works? Really works? Did you prepare the beer?"

At 7 p.m. on the 26th, the faces of coworkers, blurred from over a month of working from home, appeared one after another on the laptop screen. The essentials for this sudden gathering were chicken and beer. After seeing photos of the 'bizarre video conference gatherings in the IT industry' on social networking services (SNS), Kim Ji-yeon (34, female) sent video chat invitations to her close coworkers saying, "Let's see each other's faces once," making this 'remote sudden meeting' happen. Kim raised a can of beer above the monitor screen, saying, "Let's start with a toast."

Due to the prolonged social distancing measures including working from home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, unique customs based on ICT have emerged. Following the so-called 'stay-at-home challenges' like making dalgona coffee, there have been numerous accounts of replacing company dinners or drinking gatherings with online video chats.

◆Group Video Mukbang on 'Zoom' Gains Attention= It started with a post on Twitter in mid-April. Alongside photos of chicken and cola placed next to a laptop, it described how participants shared their home addresses and desired food via Google Forms, the representative ordered through Baedal Minjok (a Korean food delivery app), and they held a group video mukbang on Zoom. This tweet was retweeted over 7,000 times, becoming a hot topic. Zoom is a video conferencing platform that offers unlimited one-on-one meetings and free group meetings up to 40 minutes for three or more participants.

After seeing this tweet, Jung Ji-hyun (31, female), who held a remote drinking party with coworkers, said, "I haven't met acquaintances for a long time because the subway and streets feel unsafe," adding, "Chatting comfortably at home as if we met in person relieved my stress." Park Min-cheol, a man in his 30s working in finance, is also planning a couple's dinner using Zoom this weekend at his wife's suggestion. On Twitter, reviews like "Last night, we connected three households via video for a couples' online drinking party. It's more doable than I thought" and "Good idea" keep coming in.

◆"Reality is Tragedy, but Cyberspace is Comedy"= After completing 'stay-at-home challenges' like making dalgona coffee or eating a lemon in one bite, posting proof on SNS has become a trend. The 'Amu Nori Challenge' video, created on the suggestion of a child psychology expert, has been shared over 10,000 times. SNS posts tagged with '#StayAtHomeChallenge' are pouring in from various countries.

Behind these new customs lies ICT such as video conferencing platforms. While COVID-19 was the trigger, it is also a change brought by technological advancement. Jo Jin-young (35, female) said, "Without time lag, seeing videos and hearing voices made me feel like I was really in the same space with acquaintances," adding, "I was amazed by the technology level."

Since the spread of COVID-19, Microsoft (MS) Teams, a video conferencing platform, surpassed 44 million global users, and TikTok, an app for uploading short videos between 15 and 60 seconds, has rapidly climbed the download rankings. SK Telecom's 'Jump AR' open gallery, which allows sharing animal photos based on augmented reality (AR), has become a new playground for children with over 3,000 uploads within two weeks of its release. Earlier, Facebook announced that message usage on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger increased by more than 50% compared to the previous month.

An ICT industry insider evaluated, "This kind of play culture is a new custom born from the combination of ICT development and the social distancing movement," adding, "Reality is tragedy, but cyberspace is comedy."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.