South Koreans have a creepy solution to loneliness

In the East Asian country, some people, especially young women, have found a way to combat loneliness. A method that does not require having to maintain a relationship with another human… or even with a pet, or even with a plant. Deciphering a somewhat bizarre phenomenon.

In the category “I don’t want to live on this planet anymore”, here is the last oddity. It comes to us from South Korea and denotes a certain solitude… coupled with phenomenal laziness. Or bulletproof pragmatism.

There, the younger generations no longer want to adopt dogs, hamsters or other cute little cats. No, South Koreans want animals that require little work and are… indestructible. So no Tamagotchi either, Millennials traumatized by the death of their little pixelated being can testify to the hell that losing this little thing represents.

How can you receive unconditional love from a kind companion, without risking that he or she dies and ends up buried at the bottom of the garden in a torrent of tears?

Of the companions that fit in your pocket

In South Korea, young people are now adopting… stones. Pet stones. “Pet stones” or “pet rocks”, in English. The phenomenon started during Covid, when teleworking worsened the feeling of loneliness among some people.

As written by Korea Herald, those who own pet stones tend to personify them. We give a name to our nice rock, we talk to it. This is the case of Lim, a 29-year-old woman, who testifies in the columns of the newspaper.

Fans of “pet stones” who also invest in small beds, clothes or houses for their companions. And who share the daily lives of their friends on social networks.

There are also online stores for pet stones – why go and pick up an ordinary stone from the ground when you can buy one and have it delivered directly to your home?

According to Korea Herald, these “pet rocks” are not the most expensive companions. The price of a stone varies between 6,000 and 10,000 won, or approximately between 4 and 6.50 francs.

Stressed to the idea of ​​maintaining links

These new companions would, according to several experts interviewed by the newspaper, be a response to relational stress and increased loneliness.

Pebbles are therefore a “good way” to overcome this loneliness and do not require much investment, as would be the case with an animal, for example, or even with a plant.

Single-person households, which make up the majority of all households in South Korea, often struggle to raise “real” pets due to work.

This is explained by Pak, a 31-year-old woman living in Seoul, who she said could not handle a cat or a dog because of her work.

Stones that are not the prerogative (only) of marginalized people allergic to social relationships, since even K-Pop stars show off theirs on social networks.

A American joke in the 1970s

While some people embrace stones at face value today, around fifty years ago, Gary Dahl, an American, started the “pet rocks” business as a joke. A genius marketing move, since in 1975, no less than 1.5 million copies were sold. Sold for $3.95 each, the rock was supplied in a box with ventilation holes so that the “pet rock” could breathe.

The package also contained a booklet with valuable information about the life of the stone.

Gary Dahl will again write in his booklet that stones do not respond to all orders with the same efficiency. Thus, “fetch” being a difficult instruction to make his stone understand, while “heel” or “play dead” work well (“play dead” was one of his specialties).

A joke which still allows the father of the pet stones to become a millionaire. A blow that he will not repeat despite several attempts. Like with the kit to grow sand and create your own desert, or the “Red China Dirt”, the red dust of China, a plan to smuggle mainland China into the United States, one cubic centimeter at a time .

A ancestral Asian tradition diverted

But back to the South Korean stones. Cherishing stones is not new in Asia. These traditions have existed for millennia, and have different names from one country to another. Thus, we speak of “suseok” in Korean, or the art of searching for stones that resemble natural landscapes.

In the Middle Kingdom, these are “gongshi”, rocks generally made of limestone that the Chinese collect. Stones that are also called “scholars’ rocks” and which can be small, displayed like trinkets, or be gigantic and take up half the garden. These rocks are appreciated for their shapes, their holes, their texture, or even their resonance when struck.

In Japan, we speak of “suiseki”, which are, unlike Chinese stones, rather smooth because they are worked by water, and admired for their shapes reminiscent of the silhouette of an animal for example.

Ancestral arts that have perhaps inspired today’s South Koreans, even if it is not the aesthetics of the stones that they are looking for, but rather a response to loneliness and a fear of social relationships. A fear that has worsened with Covidand grew despite the end of restrictions linked to the pandemic.

And even if these “pet stones” can represent a “cute” pastime and bring comfort to the most timid or the most sensitive, the situation – relying on a stone to which one has glued eyes – is enough to arouse some worry.

Do we like to follow trends, even the craziest ones?

If you love animals, but don’t have time to devote to them: