In 2019, Yoo Seung-gyu left the studio where he lived for the first time in five years.
The 30-year-old South Korean first cleaned his “messy apartment” with his brother. He then embarked on a fishing expedition at sea, with hermits like himself whom he had met through a charity.
“It was a strange feeling to be in the sea, but at the same time it was very refreshing after confinement. It felt unreal, but it was definitely there. It existed,” Yoo said.
A growing number of young South Koreans are choosing to isolate themselves, completely removing themselves from a society that exacts a high price for failing to live up to expectations.
These hermits are known as hikikomoria term first coined in Japan in the 1990s to describe the severe social distancing of teenagers and young adults.
In South Korea, which struggles with the world’s lowest fertility rate and declining productivity, this has become a serious problem.
So much so that authorities are offering young hermits who fall within a certain income threshold a monthly payment to persuade them to leave their homes.
Those who are between nine and 24 years old and come from low-income families can receive up to the equivalent of US$490 per month for their support.
They can also apply for subsidies for a range of services, including health, education, counseling, legal assistance, cultural activities and even “correction of appearance and scars.”
The objective of these incentives is “to allow imprisoned youth to recover their daily lives and reintegrate into society,” said the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family of South Korea.
It defines young hermits as “adolescents who have been living in a confined space for extended periods of time, disconnected from the outside world, and who have significant difficulty living a normal life.”
But throwing money at the problem won’t make it go away, say the young people who have isolated themselves.
Yoo now runs a company that supports shut-in youth called Not Scary, a far cry from the days when he wouldn’t leave his room even to use the bathroom.
But the journey to emerge from his seclusion has been full of ups and downs. He first withdrew from the outside world at age 19, left that situation for two years to complete mandatory military service, and then locked himself away again for two more years.
“It’s not a question of money”
Park Tae-hong, another 34-year-old former hermit, explained that self-isolation can be “comforting” for some. “When you’re trying new things, it’s exciting, but at the same time, you have to endure certain levels of fatigue and anxiety. But when you’re just in your room, you don’t have to feel that. But it’s not good in the long run.”
Some 340,000 people between 19 and 39 years old in the country, or 3% of that age group, consider themselves lonely or isolatedaccording to the Korean Institute of Health and Social Affairs.
Research has also noted a growing proportion of single-person households in South Korea, which accounted for about a third of all family units in 2022. At the same time, the number of people who had “lonely deaths” in the country has risen.
But money, or the lack of it, is not what is motivating these young people to isolate themselves.
“They come from a variety of economic backgrounds,” Park maintains. “I wonder why the government associates isolation with financial status. Not all hermit youth have financial difficulties.”
“Individuals who desperately need money could be forced to adapt to society. There are simply too many different cases,” he added.
Both he and Yoo, for example, received financial support from their parents when they were detained.
“Culture of shame”
What is common among young hermits is the belief that they have not met the standards of success demanded by society or their families. Some feel like misfits because they are not pursuing conventional careers, while others may have been criticized for poor academic performance.
Yoo said he went to college because his father wanted him to, but he dropped out a month later.
“Going to university made me feel ashamed. Why couldn’t I be free to choose [mi propia carrera de estudios]? “I felt very miserable,” he said. He also didn’t feel like he could talk to his parents about it.
“The ‘culture’ of shame in Korea makes it more difficult for hermits to talk about their problems,” Yoo said. “One day, I simply came to the conclusion that my life was going wrong and I began to isolate myself.”
During his isolation, he didn’t even go out to use the bathroom because he didn’t want to see his family.
For Park, for her part, social pressure was made more difficult due to a strained relationship with her family.
“My mother and father fought frequently since I was a child. That also affected my school life. School in Korea can be very hard and I found it difficult. I was not able to take care of myself,” Park said.
She began therapy sessions in 2018 when she was 28 and is now gradually rebuilding her social life.
The expectations of a conventional society
Youth in South Korea feel “oppressed” because society expects people to behave in a certain way when they reach a certain agesaid Kim Soo Jin, a manager at Seed:s, which also specializes in hikikomori programs.
“When they can’t meet these expectations, they think ‘I failed’, ‘I’m already late.’ This type of social environment depresses their self-esteem and could ultimately isolate them from society,” he added.
Seed:s runs a physical space they’ve dubbed the “mole tunnel,” where hermits can go to rest, spend time in silence, and seek advice. Their programs are open to everyone, regardless of income.
A society where youth can find a wide variety of jobs and educational opportunities would be more welcoming to isolated individuals.says Kim.
“Young hermits want a workplace where they can think, ‘Oh, I can do this, it’s not that hard. I think I can learn more here and then go into the real world,'” he said.
Park also hopes that one day Korean society can be more understanding of young people who have interests that are unconventional.
“Currently, we just force them to study. That’s very uniform. We have to give young people the freedom to find things they like and are good at,” he said.
The living allowance could be a “first step” in tackling the problem, but those working with youth say the money could be put to better use. They believe that funding organizations and programs aimed at isolated young people, offering them counseling or job training, would have much more impact.
“The next step should be the preparation of free, high-quality national programs for isolated youth. Currently, there are a very limited number of programs and centers where isolated youth can participate and feel a sense of belonging,” said Kim Hye Won, chief director of PIE for Youth, an organization that offers different programs for young prisoners and their caregivers.
However, she is excited that the South Korean government is trying to address the problem since she was a teenager.
“It’s good to see that [las nuevas medidas] They focus on teenagers. I believe that adolescence is the golden time to prevent isolation, because most adolescents are part of a community, like a school. “After that, it becomes very difficult to find these people.”
Yoo explained that he has gradually emerged from his isolation and only after having met other former hermits through a now non-existent rehabilitation group called K2 International.
“Once I received help from others, I began to realize that this is not just my problem but society’s problem,” he said.
“And finally I was able to slowly come out of my isolation.”
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-65737593, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-05-28 10:00:07
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