Many adults are now living in troubled times with many worries such as job preparation, relationships, living expenses, and providing for the elderly. However, many people are not sufficiently primed to prepare for these concerns. They are called ‘kidults’ in modern society. In this article, we are going to find out what things have comforted or are now comforting kidults. -Ed.

  1. Kidults who are comforted by characters
  Character goods are gaining popularity as more people consume these products. According to the Korea Creative Content Agency, domestic consumers spent 58,163 won on their character products last year. This year, cartoon characters, such as Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Moomin and Bonobono, were quite popular. These products are based on classic characters from previous generations that grew up watching Disney on TV in the 1990s. These generations have a more comfortable recognition of these characters because they previously were exposed to them in merchandise like stationery products and cosmetics. Therefore, they easily recognize the character goods.
  Also, these characters have appeared on screen in animated films for children, which are gaining popularity among adults. The first part of the movie Christopher Robin offers a very realistic impression of the daily lives of adults by showing situations where Christopher has to experience the life of adults. Christopher, who is tired of such hard days, goes off to play as if he were back in his childhood and goes on an adventure with Pooh and his friends. Adults who watch this movie sympathize with Christopher’s growth process and revel in his freedom from society’s restrictions. The movie conveys a message that it is okay for adults to take a rest through the quote, ‘Doing nothing often leads to the very best of something.’ Kim So-yeon, a 28-year-old who watched the film, said, “When I heard about the movie, I anticipated a good time because I enjoyed Winnie the Pooh when I was a child. However, I felt a little bit bitter when I saw the movie. I felt as if I were looking in a mirror while listening to the lines of Christopher. I think it is because of the difference from my own past and my current situation. I have always used ‘busy’ as an excuse since becoming an adult. I also thought it would be okay to take a break after watching Pooh, who has not changed over time.”
  In the Pooh books, short but supportive words and illustrations remind adults about memories and help heal the stress of their hard lives.
  Adults relate with these classic characters who cannot find a spare moment in daily life. It also gives them a chance to look back on when they felt the most happiness. Yoon Sang-chul, a professor of the Dept. of Sociology at Hanshin Univ., said, “The younger generation, who has hit the wall of low-growth and job-hunting, regards the old generation as ‘Hell Joseon’ and is looking for a new target for advice. The trend seems to be a part of the regressive cultural phenomenon of returning to a world of fairy tales and getting comfort rather than growing up into an adult who has to fight fiercely.”

  2. Kidults who are comforted by books
  Books that tell stories that give comfort to adults are also gaining popularity. Many books that people trivialized in their youths can now be realized as they become adults, and they are gaining popularity. Also, new writers’ books which tell their stories and give words of consolation are becoming popular too.
 The novel The Little Prince by Saint Exupery is one of those books. According to Kyobo Book Centre, one of the translations of The Little Prince is currently ranked as 76th, and it was also introduced as one of the top 100 books to read by Amazon. Previously, The Little Prince was appreciated more by adults than children because the lines in the novel often feel like words for adults. For example, ‘All grown-up were once children, although few of them remember it,’ or ‘It’s a little lonely in the desert. It’s also lonely with people,’ serve as reminders to adults who are trying to live busy lives and take responsibility for the present. Also, the story of the relationship between the little prince and the fox gives comfort to many adults. The scenes about being tame by gaining responsibility for each other and accepting others gained empathy from adults and are one of the reasons for its popularity. Also, The Little Prince was adapted into many types of essays. ‘Find Their Star’ by Yoon Hye-jin is one example. She said that it is for adults who have childlike minds and who are finding their star. She comforts adults by talking about friends, friendship, freedom and relationships.
  Also, ‘I Hurt My Wound the Best’ by Park Min-geun, a psychology consultant, introduces 31 stories from people whom he directly consulted, agonized with and comforted. This book has ranked in the top 100 for ten weeks at Yes24, a bookstore. The author wrote the book to bring back the meaning and pleasure of life to those who suffer from growing pains of adulthood. In the book, he says that no one can avoid wounds, but the important thing is how to deal with them. The publisher of Yes24 described the book as a reminder of a fundamental cure for those who are easily hurt by minor comments from friends or family and who are wounded by society. In the prologue, there is a line, ‘I told her I couldn’t learn how to deal with wounds on my own. To overcome a wound, you have to go inside and learn from it,’ and it means that people can realize how to deal with wounds only by experiencing them firsthand rather than by trying to search in the Internet or the books. These 31 stories are not all resolved in cool ways as the problems often end in ambiguity. However, it is easy to empathize with the people in the book and readers will feel comforted by reading about others who are in similar situations.

  3. Kidults who are comforted by ASMR
  According to statistics from the OECD in 2016, the average daily sleep time of Koreans was seven hours and 41 minutes, which ranked the lowest among OECD countries. Also, as modern society is called a meritocratic society, modern people are exposed to much stress and suffer from a lack of rest time. Because of those issues, tired and anxious adults seek mental comfort and healing, and they sometimes look to alternative sources for relief, like ASMR (Automatic Sensor Meridian Response), which is a phenomenon in which a certain sound acts as a kind of trigger for a physical response, and people can feel pleasantly creepy by listening to them. Content using ASMR provides a strange sense of pleasure for adults, and it creates a sense of psychological stability and pleasure. As a result, they are gaining popularity in videos on the internet.
  Some videos include eating, writing, or touching slime. Writing videos maximize the sound of writing from pencils or mechanical pencils. It also helps to keep people’s minds calm by repeating the sound steadily. Also, people who are studying for exams or need to concentrate on something enjoy ASMR. The slime videos remind adults of toys that they played with when they were young. The slime makes people feel good when they touch it, so many adults buy the slime as well as watch the videos.

By Jo Se-in | si38@cbnu.ac.kr
By Kim Min-jeong | mj38@cbnu.ac.kr