The 'Challenge' Craze Even Among Strangers... "Motivation Comes from Doing It Together"

Anonymous Chat Rooms Certifying Efforts
for Numerous Unspecified Individuals with the Same Goal
499 'Challenge' Open Chat Rooms

"Today, it's okay to be shaken. Living while being shaken is life. However, you just need to know this: shaking is a time for soaring."

At 7 a.m. on the 20th, four photos with quotes were posted in a KakaoTalk open chat room with 985 members. The room's name is 'Pilsasa Challenge'. Every morning, the room leader posts a few phrases for transcription, and participants certify their transcriptions and freely chat. Usually, about 20 people certify their transcriptions daily. Participants in the Pilsasa Challenge room said they joined for 'mental stability' and 'positive affirmations' (repeating good words to receive positive influence). One participant who encountered transcription for the first time through this room expressed satisfaction, saying, "It definitely made my mind more at ease and changed my daily habits, among other positive effects."

Handwriting challenge room post of handwriting certification.
[Photo by KakaoTalk]

Modern people are seeking so-called 'challenge rooms' as a means to achieve goals such as mental stability and self-development. Challenge rooms are anonymous chat rooms where an unspecified number of people with the same goal gather to share efforts and exchange advice and criticism. As of this day, there were 499 chat rooms found by searching the keyword 'challenge' in KakaoTalk open chat rooms. The topics varied widely, including writing, no-spending, transcription, self-development, dieting, and early rising. The response was enthusiastic. One no-spending challenge room exceeded the maximum capacity of 1,500 members, leading to the creation of additional rooms with the same purpose. Also notable were self-development challenge rooms and transcription rooms with nearly 1,000 participants.

Participants said that communication with others who share the same goal motivates life and helps strengthen willpower. Hong (33, female), an office worker, said, "I decided to diet as a New Year's goal, but my will kept weakening, so I found a diet challenge room. When I didn't want to go exercise, seeing other dieters' workout certification photos helped me pull myself together, and now exercise and healthy eating habits have become so familiar that they are habits." Choi (29, male), who made good use of an early rising challenge room, said, "During my job preparation period, I participated in a challenge room where we took photos certifying that we had made the bed by 7 a.m. every morning. Posting wake-up certification photos and exchanging words of encouragement with other participants definitely motivated me."

List of chat rooms searched with the keyword 'Challenge' in KakaoTalk Open Chat rooms. [Image source=KakaoTalk search window capture]

Experts generally evaluated this anonymous challenge culture positively. Since participants do not know each other, they can share their efforts without burden and exchange more realistic feedback and advice. Professor Kwak Geum-ju of Seoul National University's Department of Psychology explained, "According to social facilitation theory, just knowing that others are performing the same behavior motivates more than doing it alone. Using the internet not only improves accessibility but also allows more people to gather, and because participants are strangers, the efficiency of the challenge increases."

Professor Lim Myung-ho of Dankook University's Department of Psychology said, "There is a 'self-declaration' effect where declaring goals to others makes achieving them easier than deciding alone, so anonymous challenges are a positive culture in that they involve efforts toward a goal. Through achieving small short-term goals, participants gain a sense of accomplishment, which in turn creates a virtuous cycle by further motivating them."

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