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.
“The most depressing country I can book a direct flight to and book all hotels and travel arrangements online, and make do with only English for the duration”
Well done on completely missing the body of the post and the whole article as you spent more time posting something completely unrelated to the topic.
Well what does the article say then? I can’t read.
People are depressed in Korea, not that it is depressing to visit.
…wait.
And even then Korea doesn’t even break the top 10 in suicide per capita. Having more diagnosed depression is hardly a worthwhile stat when that depends more on the availability of doctors and psychologist to make the diagnosis.
I mean they’re still pretty high on the list.
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
Source: 대한민국에서 살고 있어
No, YOUR mother is a craven harlot!
Which Korea are we talking about here?
South Korea or Best Korea?
From the article:
He also expressed regret, saying, “It is the result of Korea maximizing the bad points of Confucian culture and the shortcomings of capitalism.”
I don’t really understand what that means.
So to be safe, you are now banned from /c/Pyongyang
I like this whole schtick you have going 😁
You are now a moderator of /c/Pyongyang
Fun fact: Kim Jong Un is the fattest person in all of North Korea, a nation experiencing perpetual famine. This makes him the living embodiment of parasitic autocracy! Fun!
You are now banned from /c/Pyongyang and I have fired warheads into the Sea of Japan.
Dammit, I was going to go for a swim there!
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.
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.
Seems very similar to Japan except South Korea has been gaining popularity in the West more recently.
AFAIK Japan is also pretty bad but not as much as Korea.
Where is Korea worse?
Korea and Japan are in the same general situation, but in Korea it’s taken to the extreme. So suicide rates, average working hours, etc etc.
