South Korea’s economic success can be attributed to technology
Much of Korea’s recent economic growth has come from tech innovations such as touch screen smartphones and fast wireless mobile internet connections like 4G LTE. South Korea is considered a very “mobile” country which means that a lot of the things that we do in our daily lives such as buying food, checking out library books, and watching t.v. can be done through smartphones. So while introducing a smart phone app like the iRecycle app into South Korea could be very successful, there are still a few issues in the country to consider first before doing so.
A Mobile Country
One concern when introducing a new app to the Korean market is that it could lead to an increase in further issues regarding cell phone addiction among the country’s youth. The country is currently facing a national crisis with smart phone and internet addiction among the nation’s youth. A recent video by Channel News Asia which can be viewed below, further discusses the smart phone addiction in Korea while also noting that smartphone sales have gone up as have the number of smartphone companies entering the Korean market.
(Video Source: ChannelNewsAsia)
While the teenagers themselves will be very open to the app, the older generation of Koreans such as the parents will most likely be very resistant to the app. The adult population of Korea would want to keep anything that would further contribute to increased smart phone usage out of the hands of their children in order to reduce their smartphone addiction.
Sacrificing Certain Freedoms In Order to Solve The Problem
Another issue that may come from introducing a new smart phone app into Korea is that it there is a high chance of running into a few regulatory issues by the South Korean government. Since the country is currently dealing with a technology addiction crisis, the South Korean government has chosen to focus on smartphones in particular. The issue of smart phone addiction has become so bad in the country that the government has instituted policies that mandates every school in the country teach their students about the internet and technology addiction and also to organize boot camps to help teach students to be less dependent on technology.
Students display their smartphones after a special class on smart phone addiction, at an elementary school in Seongnam, South Korea
(Image Source: Phys.org)
The issue of smart phone addiction has become such a huge problem in the nation that the government has resorted to taking drastic measures in order to change its youth’s habits. One of the approaches that the South Korean government has taken is the establishment of a regulation that requires any smartphones purchased by those who are under the age of 19 must be installed with an app that would monitor their web activity.
South Korea’s smart phone and internet regulator app
(Image Source: Securityaffairs.co)
Although this government regulation doesn’t target the iRecycle app directly, it has the potential to affect it in a number of other ways. The South Korean governments spyware app has the ability to block any and all websites and apps at the governments discretion. This could be a huge obstacle for the makers of the app because this means that if the South Korean government disagrees with the app makers for whatever reason, they can simply block public access to the app. The government app also has the ability to control the amount of time users spend on the internet which has the potential of keeping users from making full use of the iRecycle app.
Commuters in South Korea
(Image Source: Theguardian.com)
The regulation of smart phone uses and the forced installation of government spyware apps has caused concern among a number of South Korea’s citizens. Teenagers in particular, are strongly opposed to the government’s measures to resolve smartphone addiction as they feel that they have lost many of their freedoms and privacy due to the governments’ policy. A recent article by BBC news about South Korea’s teenage smartphone privacy issue, discusses a number of problems that the teens have with the app as well as the government policy. The most notable problem they feel that the government will be taking over other forms of media which would further reduce their freedoms and privacy.
A look into the culture, youth, and Media in Korea 