총 36페이지

Cover Story
Focusonsingles
According to the research of Statistics Korea, the portion of
the single household increased to 25.3 percent in 2012, five
timesmorethanitwas30yearsago.Asthistendencycontinues
it is predicted the portion would reach 34.3 percent by 2035.
This evident increase is analyzed by scholars as a result from
the generational shift in which young people focus and care
for more on their personal life than their family. Some of the
reasons for young generation’s individualistic character are due
to how patriarchal aspect in Korean culture is weakening and
thatthestatusofwomeninKoreansocietyisgoingup.
What is more, the single households are drawing companies’
and governments’ attention. They judged that these freedom
seekers are emerging as trend leaders who take the name
of best consumers in recent times. On March 6, Business
ResearchteamofKBFinancialGroup,whichisoneofthemost
competitive private research institutes, reported that the notion
of‘SoloEconomy’ismostnoticeabletrendonthesedays.
‘Solo Economy’ means that companies concentrate on
developing products for single households as they are on the
increase. In any convenience store and markets, lots of goods
aimed for singles can easily be spotted, such as small-sized
beverages,seasonings,andinstantfoodproducts.
The wave of Solo Economy expands from the foods to the
home appliances. Recently, an engineer who developed mini-
sized drum washing machine won a prize, Engineer of the
Month from Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology
for the product’s popularity and practicality of the item. Other
services such as karaoke or restaurants for single men and
womenhavebeencreatedcontinuously.
While many business people give attention only on the bright
aspectofsinglehouseholds,thereisanotheraspectthatneedsto
be focused. Nowadays, TV programs show viewers those who
enjoy fancy single life. The media often portrays single men
and women seeking their personal freedom and refusing to be
confined as if it represents all singles’ lives in Korea. It is true
thatsomepeoplerefusetoputtheirenergyonmakingtheirown
family and pursue their personal development such as career,
leisure, identities to be happy. They chose this lifestyle just
dependingontheirwillingness.But,unlikethefancysinglelife
shown on TV shows, there are lots of singles who suffer from
economicalproblemssuchaslowincome,andfixedexpenseon
residential,inreality.
Those fancy shapes of the single household do not belong
to entire single men and women. More than half of the whole
singles actually do not want to live alone. There are various
aspects of the single households which make the singles live
alone.Theyneedtheirownfamily.
What is worse is that single households embrace lots of dark
sides of the society. All ages of the single households are
APRIL 2013
19

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