On/Off: Can South Koreans survive without the web?

Like most of Seoul, the Kukdong apartments are all wired up to the web

By John Sudworth

BBC News, Seoul

South Korea is often called the world's most wired society, boasting the fastest average broadband speeds on the planet. What happens when you ask two families to live without the web for one week? It was never going to be easy, asking South Koreans to sign up, turn off and plug out. I was looking for members of this hyper-connected country who were willing to spend seven long days in offline solitude, while the rest of the online world roared on without them. We targeted one particular Seoul tower block, the Kukdong Riverside Apartments in central Seoul. It is home to more than 100 high-rise flats providing small but comfortable homes of the kind familiar to millions of ordinary South Koreans. I trudged the stairwells and knocked on doors. I plastered the building with posters asking for volunteers. And I called a community meeting. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Advertisement But for many of the residents, a world without the web simply wasn't conceivable. Some schoolchildren are now asked to file their homework assignments online, so parents were naturally reluctant to unplug them. Other people said they ran their own internet businesses, or worked from home, or simply couldn't face life without the habit that web-browsing has become. A season of reports from 8-19 March 2010 exploring the extraordinary power of the internet, including: Digital giants - top thinkers in the business on the future of the web Mapping the internet - a visual representation of the spread of the web over the last 20 years Global Voices - the BBC links up with an online community of bloggers around the world

What is SuperPower? John Sudworth's On/Off diary They wanted news, views and social networks all to stay within easy reach. But in the end the effort paid off. Two families bravely stepped forward to take the plunge, fully aware that our little experiment would cause them considerable inconvenience. Firstly the Kims: they are a highly wired family with two teenage boys, the youngest of whom, Seung-yeon, is a talented computer programmer who spends up to six hours online every day. Next, the Yangs: they are a family with younger sons, but who are, nonetheless, just as dependent on the web. Most of the TV channels that the two boys enjoy are piped into the home over the internet. And their mother, Jung-a, admits to a two-hour-a-day web browsing habit. So, with the families braced for a week of internet abstinence, all we needed was for someone to help us pull the plug. That job fell to Mr Song, an engineer from Korea Telecom. He left carrying the two internet modems, one from each household, tucked under his arm, and the project was under way. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Advertisement For both families there were, of course, a number of instant practical difficulties. Pushing a trolley around her local supermarket, Jung-a told me that she normally does most of her shopping online. She's not alone. In 2008, the total size of the South Korean e-commerce market reached more than $600bn. This is due in no small part to the role of the government, which has invested in digital infrastructure and framed policies to regulate competition and protect consumers. And the South Korean state itself has turned into a kind of online shop, offering a wide range of services over the internet including tax and benefits payments. The Kims are also struggling without access to such innovations. Hye-sook runs an online blog for other school mums. Now temporarily cut off, she's forced to meet them in the real world. "It's been so inconvenient," she tells me. "It's normally easy to arrange a meeting - I just post a notice on our internet forum, but this time I've had to telephone everyone individually." Rejuventated youth These small difficulties are predictable enough. But as the week progresses, the families report a psychological reaction, too. The Yang children began playing more traditional games... Without access to the online news networks, now the most common way that information about the outside world finds its way into the home, both families talk about an unnerving sense of isolation. A recent survey showed that 68% of South Koreans get their news from the internet, compared with just 32% who still read newspapers. But all of our volunteers agree that there is also a positive side to the experience. Freed from their computers, they find that they're spending more time with each other. In the Kim household, Seung-yeon is practising the piano more, books are being read and board games have been rediscovered. Hye-sook is pleased with the effect the experiment is having on her eldest son. For the first time in a long time, she's finding the whole family dressed and ready for breakfast in the morning. "Normally Sung-jun would be in bed after playing internet games all night. It's been a long time since I've seen him up this early," she tells me. And then, with sighs of relief all round, our brief experiment is over. As promised, Mr Song returns with the modems. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Advertisement Of course, seven days without the internet was never really going to be too much of an ordeal. But it has delivered our families some surprises and, they all admit, shown them just how much they have come to rely on the web. The Yangs say they will change their behaviour as a result. "After finishing my morning chores I used to spend between two and three hours online," Jung-a tells me. "That's time spent alone. But, during the experiment I've even had the time to drink tea with neighbours, so I'm going to regulate time spent online from now on." But would either of the families consider giving it up for good? "It would be the same as asking if you could cut off my electricity for a week," Cho Hye-sook laughs. "Lose the internet for another seven days? It's a real 'No thank you,' I'm afraid. I don't want to go through this again."



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