The joy of discovery in fieldwork

The moment I heard the answer, everything became clear.

A feeling of being able to see the whole shape of things, now from above, to understand the countless points of different sizes that had filled my mind for weeks.

Why do women drink alone?

At the time, I was conducting qualitative research to find the meaning of women in their 20s and 30s drinking alone in relation to the annual marketing campaign strategy of a liquor brand. Time had passed, and I was no longer finding any new experiences from conversations with research participants or their daily lives.

To be precise, I was looking for the 'context', the flow that runs through the whole thing to understand the meaning, but as the number of individual cases increased and detailed information increased, I was increasingly wondering what I had come here for in the first place. In the process, I had already narrowed my thinking by throwing out 3-4 wrong questions such as 'being alone is equal to solitude = growth', so I was feeling psychologically pressured.

Then, while sharing my concerns with my partner company at the time, I received a surprising answer from a strange designer in her 20s who worked there. It gave me a good deal of insight.

Why was the above answer special?

First of all, she distinguished 'home' and 'room' on the same level.

When it comes to talking about anything, we've been thinking that buying our own 'home' as an adult is a benchmark of some level of success compared to others in life. And in that respect, 'room' is just an element that belongs to 'home', not something that can be directly compared to 'home'.

But she confidently and naturally stated that she lives in a 'room'. Then she showed me the online space where she decorated the interior of her room and shared it, and talked about her experiences with people similar to her who actively communicate within it. It revealed the perception that in their reality, the room is the best realistic space, not the house. And this is 곧 a benchmark for understanding and analyzing women in their 20s and 30s, i.e.It was an opportunity to confirm the need to expand our perspective on the criteria for life and success created by the older generation..

The difference between YOLO and small but sure 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. But we need to pay attention to the discovery of meanings that were not visible before.

A low-alcohol fruit wine brand that once featured IU as its model ran an offline event based on YOLO (You Only Live Once), with the meaning of 'forget it for now and have fun with us'. (Water gun fight in Hongdae, etc.) And I remember there were quite a few comments online expressing discomfort about this marketing activity. It's like they're using their serious reality too much for marketing.

As a researcher, at the time I understood YOLO as a self-deprecating and rebellious escape for the younger generation who had been frustrated by chasing after the success that the older generation had emphasized. An intern at a PR company who participated in the interview laughed and described YOLO as 'like going to a club in Amsterdam one day, spending money and coming back.'

On the other hand, 250,000 posts searched on Instagram as 'small but sure happiness' were understood to be closer to the realistic aspects of daily life. For example, the image of 'chicken enjoyed with a glass of beer' with the text 'Small but sure happiness for me who worked hard today' is not excessive at all compared to the above example. There is no emotional anger, it's closer to the image of someone trying their best to immerse themselves in their own time quietly.

I judged this difference as 'a generational shift in attitude towards happiness and success'.

The concept of lifelong employment based on large companies has disappeared, and the time spent in the economic community (external activities related to company life), which used to be important in daily life, has lost its place to go. This is revealed as a result of interest and investment in cultural communities (cultural gatherings of office workers after work, hobby gatherings).

The survey results show that women in their 25s and 35s who live alone are under the most stress, and the biggest factor of this stress is derived from the 'relationship in work' that the older generation expects, as shown by various data. (There was also a participant in the survey who expressed it as 'Confucian Taliban'.) On top of that, the Sewol Ferry disaster, the Gangnam Station bathroom murder, the Choi Soon-sil scandal, and the exposed flaws of Ewha Womans University professors linked to her daughter, Jung Yoo-ra, were connected to the broken trust in the existing familiar social and economic structures. And this caused them to abandon the vague expectation that they would be able to solve everything just by working hard, and to determine the scope of relationships and success that fit them, leading to a change in attitude.

One interview participant expressed that what she wanted from work was 'to be able to buy what she wanted to eat and go where she wanted to go'. And she said that her friends say, 'You're ambitious.'

At the time, I summarized and expressed this as'From Slow stability to Fast simplicity'..

The bold declaration in 'I live in a room' is amazing.

I hear that a book titled 'The 90s Generation is Coming' is a bestseller. This can be understood to mean the extent of the older generation's bewilderment when dealing with today's young generation. And in my conversations with the survey participants at the time, I was able to see that the younger generation's expectations of the older generation were not as great as before. Even if they had the chance to talk to a senior in a particular industry, they didn't blindly expect to gain experience or opportunities from them, and show respect, but rather they were changing their attitude to clearly define their own area of expertise and limit the things they pay attention to. And this declaration for themselves and the world is well reflected in the 'I live in a room' that was first shared.

As a result, the related survey findings influenced the change in the annual communication strategy of the aforementioned brand, from the original concept of a 'tough woman in her 30s' to a perspective of a person in their 20s who has the same worries.

I feel it every time, but it's not easy to understand the essence of experience. Even if I draw a conclusion, there's always a limit to the subjective interpretation of the researcher, making it difficult to persuade everyone. But in the process, I also find opportunities that companies who believe that only figures are important cannot see, based on the experiences of others I meet and the expansion of awareness based on them.

Most of all, I often experience personal growth through this work. I really enjoy this work that allows me to gain new perspectives on life beyond generations and insights from various fields.