Mark Manson, an American bestselling author and famous YouTuber, has made headlines by posting a video that he “traveled to the world’s most depressing country” after visiting Korea. Manson, a best-selling author who has written famous self-development books such as “The Art of Turning Off Nervousness,” is a YouTube creator with 1.44 million subscribers.
Manson recently released a 24-minute video on his YouTube channel under the theme of “Traveling to the World’s Depressing Country.” During his visit to Korea, Manson met with Americans, psychologists, and psychiatrists living in Korea to look into depression in Korean society.
Korea is surprisingly dystopian and no other country is exactly like that tbh.
The internet (and many other areas) are completely captured by monopolies that control everything. There are so many inhumane, draconian laws too. This all contrasts with advance tech and pop production so starkly it kinda breaks people’s brains.
Behold the corporate state.
So the world of Cyberpunk 2077 basically
Yeah, the genre of cyberpunk in general can be loosely summarized as “it’s the libertarian wet dream future and it sucks”
“…but the aesthetic is dope”
Well the country is pretty much run by Samsung to the point their entire economy and education system revolve around it. And the family that runs the company openly gets away with doing whatever the fuck they want.
Aw. Name more of the chaebols.
Samsung
KIA
Daewoo
Hyundai
SK
LG
Lotte
At least they didn’t have 500 million cameras deployed, The real Cyberpunk 2077 is China.
Which Korea are we talking about here?
South Korea or Best Korea?
You are now a mod of c/Pyongyang
You would think a best selling author could express himself more clearly. But then again he‘s American. Perhaps he really doesn‘t know or care which one or if there is a difference.
Technically, Stephanie Meyer (Twilight), E.L. James (50 Shades of Grey) and Donald Trump (The Fart of the Eel) are all best selling authors, so…
That’s not even technically. They wrote immensely popular books, they’re just poorly written ones
That’s what I meant: you don’t necessarily have to be good at writing to write something popular.
In Korea, it’s common to refer to the place as “Korea”, and not “South Korea”.
I’ve heard that “North Korea”, when referred to in South Korea, is best translated as “Northern Korea”. It might not even be generally thought of as a different country at all.
That‘s just normal behavior for people of split countries. It‘s not so normal when a foreigner doesn‘t specify clearly which of the two they’re referring to when speaking to a global audience.
And the part about it not even being considered a different country is of course nonsense. Some folks may be wishful thinking out loud, but the general public does not believe they are currently the same country. Some may think of them as the same people, but the countries couldn‘t be more different and divided.
Nicholas Plot, an American StarCraft professional commentator who has lived in Korea for 15 years, said, "One of the things that surprised me when I first came here was work ethics. They almost collapsed from overwork but didn’t say anything. In an apartment in suburban Seoul, 15 to 16 game players trained in an environment similar to a PC room, using bunk beds, he said. “When there is a small ecosystem where everyone pushes each other to get better and better, Koreans completely dominate (the environment). At the same time, I had no choice but to think about the psychological slump it created,” he said.
This is reasonably accurate. Korea is very heavy on the grind. If you ever want to learn work ethics and how to have fun with the short amount of free time you get, this is the place.
Source: 대한민국에서 살고 있어
It doesn’t sound like the kind of work ethic I want to learn. That’s basically voluntary slavery.
Individualism is great.
Source: 대한민국에서 살고 있어
No, YOUR mother is a craven harlot!
The video title is “Depressed” not “Depressing.”
He based that on the suicide rate. It’s hard to have a metric for happiness/depression, but that’s a credible one.
The article took liberties with the message.
He spoke directly with many people across South Korea. Interview style and not coming at it with a load of certanties.
By the second sentence he said, “South Korea.”
I don’t know why so many people here have to imagine a slight and then react against it.
But Korea has their superior fried chicken and the corn dogs with potatoes on the outside. It can’t possibly be bad.
corn dogs with potatoes on the outside
Wouldn’t that be potato dogs?
The potatoes are cubed and attached to the outside of the dog, often with a mild cheese filling instead of a hot dog.
Ok, that’s just WEIRD! 1😂
I guess he hasn’t been to Eastern Europe yet.
How do they compare, I’ve been to a few eastern euro countries and the people are happy and vibe is fun. The standard of living might not be high but it isn’t high stress worker drone society boxed in by societal expectations.
You have probably been in big cities where a lot of stuff is happening but visit the countryside and it is full of broken people and dying towns.
Another thing to note is that further south you go, the happier people will seem, while in the north, long winter days and lack of Vitamin D can really mess with local people.
The people over 45 have it especially bad here, since the world they used to know is no longer there, they can’t adapt to it, they don’t make as much as some younger people do, and they are beginning to lose their friends and family. While life is amazing and exciting to the young adults you are most likely to talk to in bars. The contrast actually adds to depression.
When it comes to comparisons, I think the main difference is that in East Asia, people have to deal with too much order and monotony.
In East Europe, the life as you know it might disappear at any moment. Life is fragile and fleeting and everything around you and everything you know will be dead one day. Nature itself reinforces that fact every year.
Isn’t that basically just all rural areas at this point? I am not aware of any rural towns where you will have a jolly good fun time.
At this point it just seems like a trade off of rural living. You need to be part of some community if you want to live a happy existence in a rural area.
There are places in bigger cities that are depressing too, if you venture outside of the touristy parts. In rural areas, however, it is harder to avoid.
You basically just described every rural town, anyplace in the world I have traveled to.
The younger generation leaves the rural communities for the opportunities found in larger cities and towns. What is left behind is 50+ year olds with no-one to pass the farm onto. Eventually they sell out to someone or go bankrupt. The consolidation of land resources continues.
My wife and I are some of those the fled the rural hellscape. Those that stayed behind have spent their lives in poverty and ignorance. Both of my grandparents went bankrupt farming and died living with some of their kids in a city.
I actually did the opposite. I grew up in Klaipėda, a harbor town in Lithuania and moved a 100 km eastward to a small town to live with my wife.
I work from home so I can live here quite comfortably, despite it being boring. Both urban and rural experiences can be depressing in their own way.
