[Jihye Choi's Trend 2023] Friends of My Choosing: The 'Index Relationship'

From Building Resumes to Dating and Hobbies
Enjoying Random Encounters with Anonymous Strangers via Open Chat Apps
Insight Needed to Turn Encounters into Opportunities

How are human relationships formed? Take a moment to think about your ‘Bef (best friend)’ and recall the first time you met them. What opportunity led you to become friends? Most human relationships naturally begin by chance encounters. Meetings occur through everyday gatherings that don’t require special effort, such as ‘having the same major, attending the same class, joining the same club, being colleagues at work, or participating in a hobby group.’ However, modern relationships are no longer formed solely by chance encounters. Nowadays, building relationships requires ‘effort.’ In other words, forming relationships today is closer to ‘relationship management,’ where numerous human connections formed for specific purposes are indexed and rearranged to maximize their utility. This is called an index relationship.

The first type of creating index relationships is the ‘purpose relationship.’ A purpose relationship refers to human connections formed with a clear goal of ‘doing OO.’ Recently, clubs have entered the 3.0 era. Interests have shifted from ‘clubs’ to ‘academic societies,’ and then to ‘startups,’ with gatherings becoming more purpose-driven. In the past, university students participated in clubs mainly for ‘socializing’?meeting friends from different majors, building friendships, and enjoying hobbies together. As employment became more difficult and competition intensified, the number of students participating in clubs decreased, while ‘academic society’ activities, which enhance one’s resume (spec), gained prominence. More recently, students have been drawn to activities with clear objectives, such as founding startup companies. Rather than meeting new people to start new activities, relationships expand as part of pursuing new activities.

The area where purpose relationships are most clearly seen is the ‘dating market.’ The story of “falling in love at first sight by chance at the library” is a method that worked in the parents’ generation. Since COVID-19, many face-to-face interactions have been replaced by non-face-to-face ones, intensifying this trend. As a result, the younger generation no longer finds ‘Inmanchu (intentional meeting seeking)’ unfamiliar, instead of ‘Jamanchu (natural meeting seeking).’ It is more efficient for people with a clear goal of ‘dating’ to pursue meetings.

Purpose relationships also apply in the realm of hobbies. Unlike the parents’ generation who gathered neighborhood acquaintances for early morning soccer games, today’s young generation forms groups centered around specific interests such as hiking, snorkeling, exhibitions, and performances. Frip is a social activity platform where hosts create gatherings on unique topics, and guests pay participation fees to join the activities. People with various purposes gather, from learning activities like ‘coding lessons’ to hobbies like ‘hiking while listening to music’ or ‘walking along Hanyangdoseong (Seoul City Wall).’ The purpose takes precedence over the relationship.

The second type of index relationship is the ‘random relationship.’ A random relationship intentionally creates chance encounters with strangers who have little overlap with oneself, thereby expanding one’s network. Random relationships focus on enjoying the moment. Therefore, rather than maintaining long-term connections, they are characterized by quickly obtaining what is needed?whether fun or information?and then fading away.

A representative example popular among Generation Z is the random chat platform ‘Omegle.’ Omegle, launched in the U.S. in 2009, is an online random video chat platform. Its revival was triggered by the ‘common interest matching feature.’ When users enter interest keywords and press the chat button, they start chatting with another anonymous person who has set the same word as their interest.

Open chat rooms are gaining significant popularity in Korea, with KakaoTalk as a prime example. Kakao is expanding its function from a ‘friend-centered’ communication channel to a community platform where users can interact with ‘anonymous strangers.’ The feature allowing people who do not know each other but share common interests to create chat rooms without the ‘friend addition’ process is called ‘Open Chat.’ According to Kakao’s announcement, the number of Open Chat users in 2022 increased by about 76% compared to 2019, accounting for approximately 40% of total chat volume. Kakao interprets the popularity of Open Chat as reflecting the younger generation’s tendency to feel burdened by forming unnecessary relationships with others. Another popular trend among Generation Z is ‘YouTube Banmobang.’ This is a channel where people converse informally in the YouTube comment section. There is no specific topic; any video can be played, and participants chat freely in the comments. Invitations are only via links, and once the conversation ends, the room is ‘blown up’ (deleted).

Index relationships indicate that the way relationships are formed is being reorganized around the self. Modern life prioritizes the individual and does not cling to trivial aspects of human relationships. In the past, it was considered a virtue to endure and maintain relationships that made one uncomfortable, but nowadays, people think it is better not to have such relationships at all. Human relationships, arguably the most important aspect of our lives, are entering a new phase of change. The key question is: what kind of human relationships make us happier? The trend of flexibly forming and managing various human relationships through index relationships is accelerating. It is time to have the insight to turn these changes into opportunities.

Choi Ji-hye, Research Fellow, Consumer Trend Analysis Center, Seoul National University

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