We don't live in a ‘house,’ but a ‘room.’

The joy of discovery during fieldwork

The moment I heard that answer, everything became clear.

It was like finally being able to look down from above and see the whole shape, understanding the countless dots of varying sizes that had filled my mind for weeks.

Why do women drink alone?

At the time, I was conducting qualitative research to find the answer to the above question, seeking the meaning of 'honsul' (drinking alone) among women in their 20s and 30s in relation to an annual marketing campaign strategy for a liquor brand. Quite some time had passed, and I was no longer discovering any new experiences in conversations with participants or in their daily lives.

To be precise, I was looking for the 'context,' the flow that ran through the entirety of the meaning, but as the number of individual cases and detailed information increased, I began to question what I had been chasing all this time. In the process, I had already narrowed the scope of my thinking by throwing out 3-4 flawed questions like, 'Does spending time alone equate to solitude = growth?' This created a sense of psychological pressure.

Then, while sharing my concerns with a partner company I was working with at the time, a young, unfamiliar female designer in her 20s who worked there gave me an answer that thankfully offered me a valuable insight.

Why was that answer so special?

First, she distinguished between 'house' and 'room' on the same level.

When we talk about it, we've always believed that owning a 'house' as an adult is a benchmark of success compared to others in life. And from that perspective, a 'room' is just a component within a 'house,' not something directly comparable to a 'house'.

However, she confidently and naturally stated that she lived in a 'room.' She then showed me an online space where she decorated and shared her room's interior, and told me about her experiences with like-minded individuals who actively communicated within that space. In the reality they faced, the realization that a 'room,' not a 'house,' was the ultimate realistic living space became evident. This served as a benchmark for understanding and analyzing women in their 20s and 30s, namely,an opportunity to confirm the need to expand our perspective beyond the standards of life and success created by the parent generation.It became a turning point.

The difference between YOLO and '소확행' (small but certain happiness) = a change in attitude

That's right. In a way, it's a very obvious pattern. The difference in perspective between the older generation and the younger generation. However, it is also necessary to pay attention to the discovery of unseen meanings through this.

A low-alcohol fruit liquor brand, for which IU was once the advertising model, held offline events based on the YOLO (You Only Live Once) concept, conveying the message of 'forget your worries and enjoy yourself with us.' (e.g., a water gun fight in Hongdae). As far as I remember, there were quite a few comments online expressing discomfort with this type of corporate marketing activity. They felt it was too exploitative of their difficult realities.

As a researcher, I understood YOLO at the time as a self-deprecating and rebellious escape for young people who had been frustrated in their pursuit of success, a success emphasized by the older generation. An interview participant who was interning at a PR agency laughed as she described YOLO as 'like suddenly going to a club in Amsterdam, spending money, and coming back.'

On the other hand, the 250,000 Instagram posts that appeared when searching for '소확행' (small but certain happiness) seemed to represent a more realistic everyday life. For example, an image of 'chicken enjoyed with a glass of beer' with the text 'Small happiness for me who worked hard today' is not at all excessive compared to the previous example. There is no emotional anger; it is closer to a quiet, dedicated effort to immerse oneself in one's own time.

I concluded that this difference reflected a 'generational shift in attitudes towards happiness and success.'

The concept of a lifelong career centered around large corporations has disappeared, and the time spent in the economic communities that were once central to daily life (external activities linked to work life) has gone astray. This has resulted in increased interest and investment in cultural communities (cultural gatherings and hobby clubs for office workers after work).

The survey results revealed that women aged 25-35 living alone experienced the most stress, and various sources showed that the primary cause of this stress stemmed from 'workplace relationships' as perceived by the older generation. (In this context, some participants even used the term 'Confucian Taliban'.) The Sewol Ferry disaster, the Gangnam Station restroom murder case, and the Choi Soon-sil scandal, along with her daughter Jung Yoo-ra's connection to Ewha Womans University professors' exposed misdeeds, were linked to the collapse of trust in the familiar social and economic structures. This led to a change in attitude, where people abandoned the vague expectation that hard work alone would solve all problems and began to define relationships and success that suited them. This is how I came to understand it.

One interview participant expressed that her hope for her work life was simply to 'be able to buy whatever she wants to eat and go wherever she wants to go.' She said her friends would comment, 'Wow, you're ambitious' when she expressed this wish.

At the time, I summarized and expressed this asa shift from 'Slow stability to Fast simplicity.'

The confident declaration in 'I live in a room' is impressive.

I understand that the book titled 'The 90s Generation is Coming' has become a bestseller. This can be interpreted as an indication of the extent of the older generation's bewilderment when dealing with the current younger generation. And in conversations with the survey participants at the time, I was able to confirm that the younger generation's expectations of the older generation were not as great as before. Even when given the opportunity to talk to seniors in a particular industry, they tended to define their own areas of competence and limit their areas of interest rather than blindly expecting experiences or opportunities from them and expressing respect. This was a change in attitude, and I concluded that this declaration for oneself and the world was well-represented in the 'I live in a room' statement shared at the beginning.

Ultimately, the findings of this research influenced the annual communication strategy of the aforementioned brand, shifting from the initial 'strong, 30-something woman' concept to a perspective shared by 20-somethings with similar concerns.

I realize that understanding the essence of experience is not easy. Even when I draw conclusions, there are always limitations to my subjective interpretation as a researcher, making it difficult to persuade everyone. However, in this process of encountering other people's experiences and expanding my awareness based on those experiences, I discover opportunities that companies focused on believing that only numbers matter would miss.

Above all, I frequently experience personal growth through this work. I truly enjoy this work, which allows me to gain fresh perspectives on life beyond generational boundaries and gain insights from various fields.