샘리처드가 사적으로 궁금한 요즘 한국 근황 7가지 (절소개팅, 도파민사이트)

[00:00:00]Dopamine sites in South Korea. What is this, right? Ventures dedicated to celebrating the birthdays of K-pop idols. Oh my gosh. Yo, this is so interesting, right? This is one of the things that Korea has brought to the world. Dating can be hard in South Korea, so the monks stepped in. I'm like, "Oh man, this is awesome."

[00:00:23]I'm going to say "Hello, Professor Sam" here. To all of my subscribers, you are my new students.

[00:00:31]And many of you have asked, as my students ask me in my class, like how I find the information that I find, the news that I find. What I want to do is share the process that I use to kind of go through how I see a story, how I read a story. These are all just really pretty random articles that I found, and I haven't read through them, so I don't even know what they say. I just saved them up for this video. Let's get started with the first article.

[00:01:02]Okay, so here's this article that I found on CNN. It's actually a video.

[00:01:07]Dopamine sites in South Korea. They feature fake cigarettes and food deliveries. Okay, and I see this and I think, "Wait, dopamine sites in South Korea. What is this, right?" So, it turns out that So, you go to this site and you pretend to buy things and they don't actually show up at your door. You don't actually pay for things, but it's a You go through the process of clicking on your buttons and purchasing things, you know? So, it's like it satisfies something in the mind. Now, for me, this is fascinating because kind of is emblematic, as we say, or it's an example of kind of late-stage capitalism, in which the capitalist system survives on consumption. And you have to have lots of consumers, and you got to get people in the process of just consuming for the sake of consuming.

[00:02:03]Even they're not necessarily buying things that they need. They just have to buy. And so, people don't need as many things as are available, but we get caught in this process of feeling satisfied when purchasing something. You know, you can feel satisfied by watching the birds, or you can feel satisfied by taking a walk. But, you can also feel satisfied and get meaning from buying things. And so, that's what this website does. It's really fascinating. And And in many ways, it's probably a really good service. So, once again, like Koreans are out ahead of the rest of the world because probably people in every culture should have these dopamine websites where people could just purchase things that they don't really need and they don't really want, and it doesn't cost them anything.

[00:02:56]How awesome.

[00:02:58]Okay, let's let's switch to another one.

[00:03:00]So, here's this.

[00:03:02]Idol devotion.

[00:03:04]Inside souls' birthday cafes where fans gather to celebrate their favorite stars. Okay, now this.

[00:03:11]Okay, what what is this? In Hongdae neighborhood, it's famous for its many cafes.

[00:03:19]On any given day, you'll see a glass door and another poster of the same smiling face.

[00:03:25]They're not advertisements and paper.

[00:03:27]They're birthday cafes. What?

[00:03:29]Specialized ventures dedicated to celebrating the birthdays of K-pop idols.

[00:03:34]So, for a few days around the idols' birthday, these coffee shops transform into galleries devoted to the superstar.

[00:03:42]Oh my gosh. All right. So, they You go in and there are photographs and people leave messages, and yo, this is so interesting, right? This is one of the things that Korea has brought to the world and in the west we don't do this.

[00:03:58]Idolize, right? They're called idols.

[00:04:01]Like we idolize is a word in English meaning that you put somebody on a pedestal and you hold them in in very positive regard. So maybe like teachers or professors or something like that, but this is idolizing the idols, these K-pop stars in a really profound way. So you go celebrate their birthdays.

[00:04:25]This does not happen in the United States at all. Wow, so you go to an event. So you it's like you can participate in a birthday party so to speak with your favorite idol as a fan [clears throat] and you do it with other fans. So you it looks like you're kind of doing it by yourself. But your other fans are involved and so you can feel like, "Hey, you're at a birthday party for your favorite idol." And you know what? K-pop or really the Korean wave in so many ways, the entire wave is built upon the fans being able to engage in a new way. And you know, using for example, with these touch points, we call them in the world of of technology, we that's what we call them. So meaning that I as a fan can touch at many different points in which I can touch the thing that is being celebrated, right? Or being sold to me. Because let's face it, like culture, music, dramas, all of it is being sold to me, right? In a way. And then I can participate, right? So you Korea has given us has led the world in developing these very complex touch points whereby I as a fan can touch this thing that I am consuming and I'm celebrating. So it's really been brilliant by the way and this is the fuel of the Korean wave.

[00:05:54]Here's one. All right. Now this I would see. Okay, K-pop broke taboos by being inclusive.

[00:06:01]Okay, so now me as a sociologist, I see the word taboo, I see the word inclusive, I'm like, huh. All right, what does this mean? It just captures my interest, right? Okay, now K-beauty is starting to do the same. All right. Huh, what's it doing? Let's see. These days attend any K-pop concert and you'll find a crowd of diverse fans from all over the You know, this is actually really interesting because I'm going to KCON in August in LA and one of the things you find at KCON here in the United States, especially at a place like LA, is an incredible diversity of of fans. Okay, so South Korea's pushed to reboot uh despite being one of the nation's top cultural exports, K-beauty has struggled to find to cater to a broad demographic.

[00:06:48]Graphic, yeah. And also, before I even read this, I'm I'm hoping now that this is going to say something about an issue or something that I've been thinking about a lot cuz I've been watching K-beauty really expand to bring in people with many different types of skin. So, K-beauty has not really reached out to people with medium and dark skin tones, which is most of the world, by the way. So, look here.

[00:07:20]K-Brown's first product is this biomimetic serum designed to improve moisture in and darker skin. Yeah, exactly. This is I'm telling you, this is the future. Girls with darker skin tones, with the jobs, Latinas, African-Americans, there's so much enthusiasm for people of color for K-pop. Yep, that's right. Look at Look at this advertisement. That is the world, my friends. That is the world.

[00:07:47]Yeah, that's what I see in my class.

[00:07:49]Well, that yeah, that's pretty cool. So, this is an example of of K-beauty really really truly in taking important step in conquering the world.

[00:08:00]Yeah.

[00:08:01]So, here's something. Korea's This is in the Korea Times. Korea's fake news law is in force. What you need to know.

[00:08:08]Okay, this is going to grab my attention. Okay, because clearly this is a big issue. So, Korea's revised information and communications network act, the fake news law, came into force reshaping how unlawful information is handled online. This is important, right? Because this is now censorship.

[00:08:28]And this is something that I'm really working on all the time. I'm thinking about, right? What is fake information?

[00:08:34]What's false or manipulated information?

[00:08:37]You know, people take my videos and they manipulate my videos, take a little piece out of this part of a class and another piece out of this part of the class, and then they'll make an argument that I'm saying one thing when I'm actually saying the opposite. And so, this is an issue that's really important to me. And I've been in trouble in the past with my university because of fake news. So, for me this really hits home and I'm really interested to see how Koreans are are are talking about this.

[00:09:07]So, the revision also introduced a new category of illegal hate or discriminatory expression that covers posts that incite violence, discrimination, or hatred against individuals or groups based on race, nationality, or gender. Okay, so my first thing is, wait, hang on a second.

[00:09:25]What about based on ideology? Right? So, sociologically, I mean, this is what I've been studying for 40 years. Race, nationality, gender. Well, how do you decide what is discriminatory or hate? What produces hate, you know?

[00:09:41]Because I'm talking about something in my videos, people who don't like what I'm saying or what's being said by students in class, they'll say like, oh, this is inciting hate or inciting discrimination. And I think, I don't like So, I think this is really interesting.

[00:09:58]I would have a whole conversation about this. In fact, in my mind right now, I look at this and I think, hey, you know what? Do a class on this in the fall and have like, you know, two Korean students talking about this particular law and then have two students from other cultures talking about it. And let's see how students think about who suffers from hate and what's suffering and what's it mean? Okay, this is a future class for me.

[00:10:25]Let's look at Here's another Korea Times article. Seoul ramps up elder care initiatives to combat isolation and digital exclusion.

[00:10:35]This is interesting to me because I ride the subways and I'm, you know, that's where I see people on their phones a lot and I see elderly people on their phones, older people, much older in their 80s and sometimes they look like they're in their 90s and I see them on their phones, you know, doing things and I think, wow, man, I'm I'm always trying to look to see what it is that they're doing.

[00:10:58]But all right, so let's look at this.

[00:11:00]Dong Hang Onda taxi service, right? A subsidized mobility program aimed at bridging the digital divide for demographic excluded from smartphone-based hailing networks. Yeah, you know, I wonder about that because everything is online, you know, in Seoul and here in the United States, increasingly. Even though older Koreans are very advanced in terms of you being able to use mobile devices, there's it's still this stuff is complicated. You know, here's a funny story. Last night I wanted to order pizzas for Lori and I.

[00:11:32]And I opened up a a Gemini, which is an AI platform, and I said, "Okay, I'm living in State College, Pennsylvania, and I want to order two pizzas.

[00:11:42]What do I have to do? Where do I go?

[00:11:44]Where should I order them and what do I have to do?" And I just let AI just explain to me exactly what to do, what app I need on my phone. Now, I'm very technologically advanced, okay? But there are some things I'm not advanced on, and one is buying things online because I don't buy a lot of things. The reason is cuz it's a waste of money, but don't tell anyone that. Okay, so I had to actually go to AI and figure out, like, how do I do that? And I ordered pizzas successfully, by the way. Except that I missed something that I could click on the button to actually listen, ring my doorbell, and hand them to me, or just leave them at my door, and I missed that button because at some point I looked at my phone and I said, "Where are pizzas?" Should be here. I looked at my phone and they were already delivered, and they were sitting outside my door.

[00:12:33]I'm like, "Okay, next time I'll be thinking about what I have to do." Okay, well, there it is. The mayor is anticipating that, and he's saying, like, "Yeah, we're going to have these places that allow people get what they need without having to use advanced technology."

[00:12:49]That's thinking.

[00:12:50]Here's an article that absolutely grabbed my attention as soon as I saw the headline.

[00:12:56]Uh dating can be hard in South Korea, so so the monks stepped in. I'm like, "Oh, man, this is awesome." A monk draped in burnt orange and yet there's the young men and women participants are nervous, stealing glances. This is not a new hit reality show. It's a real-life dating retreat held in an 8th-century Buddhist temple. 30-hour affair. Oh, man. Okay, featuring back-to-back activities and a steady stream of awkward moments and breaking the silence. Buddhists have always been the first to take action when our country is in trouble, like when they were defending Korea against the Japanese in the 1500s.

[00:13:40]But this time the threat isn't from abroad. It's low birth rates. Okay.

[00:13:44]Awesome. So it looks like young people applied to be part of this program. Wow, almost 1600 people applied to be part of this retreat in which the Buddhists would help people, these Buddhist monks would help people to find a partner. Okay, this is this is cool, right? Here they are having one-on-one conversations. Oh, this is awesome. Okay, so this is this is pretty cool. All right, well, anyway, listen, this is an example of me, how I think through news, how I think through issues, how I gather ideas around which I can build my classes. You know, I'm really I'm scrolling through news and I grab articles and I save them and I put them aside and I then analyze them. And sometimes, you know, I'm in this room, I could be in here for three, four, or five hours just doing a what I call a deep dive into information. It's it's really a lot of fun.

[00:14:46]Um but that's that's how it is. If you watch videos that that that I make, it seems like I'm just kind of talking about things, but where do I get my ideas? Well, I get them by doing deep dives. So anyway, thanks for watching the video. I really appreciate it. I really like discovering on video what it is that I'm seeing in the world, especially the world in Korea.

[00:15:11]So gamsahamnida.

[00:15:12]>> [music] >> Thank you.

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