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LOOK DOWN RATHER THAN LOCKDOWN

 

After Covid-19 outbreak, while strong lockdown is going on in many countries, Korea shows well-controlled movement regarding Covid-19 through soft level of constraint such as social distancing campaign and recommendation from the government

 

People wear masks, restrict outdoor activity and cooperate on tracking/revealing travel log. Why do they follow such actions well without strong national constraint?

 

As a single race nation, strong social conformity is well-represented among general lifecycle among Korean. At similar period, they go to middle school and high school, seek job and marry. Although individualism is getting spread recent days, still people feel social pressure when they do things that against the social norm. Regarding with social distancing campaign as well, such social pressure seems to play a role as constraint instead of national lockdown

 

What makes it possible might be due to rapid spread of information. Since territory in Korea is small compared to large population, most Koreans are exposed under same major broadcast and media, and use single language. Information including campaign can be spread quick and easy through social media, personal messenger, or TV news. In other words, social blame is also spreading quickly when someone break the norm. As a result, self-purification seemed to be enough to control well-organized movement which led to relaxation of Covid-19 without strong constraint

 

It is not only found on Covid-19 situation but also shown on fast fashion trend. People are sensitive to trend and change of the trend takes place quickly. It means that there are lots of people following the changes at the fore front of the trend. Strong influence from social media and sensitive reaction to other’s eyes also represent this social characteristic well