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By Lee Yeon-woo
A survey has found that Koreans spend 40 percent of their lives using the internet for streaming content or shopping online.
According to a survey from cybersecurity company NordVPN, Koreans spend 34 years of their lifetimes logged into the internet. Considering that the average Korean person's life expectancy is 83.5 years as of 2020, 40 percent of their lives are spent online.
The survey showed that Koreans spend 69 hours ― almost three full days ― on the internet per week, NordVPN said Thursday.
Korea came in second place right behind Brazil, whose people spend 41 years using the internet during their lifetime.
"During COVID-19, people relied more than ever on information technology and the internet in their daily lives," said Cho Sung-woo, country manager of NordVPN. "Modern people tend to rely more on the internet, not only for work but also for their hobbies. It's not easy to cut back on online activities."
According to the survey, 43.7 percent of Koreans responded that they couldn't go a day without the internet.
This survey was conducted last year on 1,000 Koreans aged between 18 and 54, from Nov. 15 to 19, to examine Korean internet users' online activities. The results were also compared to NordVPN's other survey results conducted in 15 other countries, the company said.
The survey found that Koreans spend most of their time watching short video content, such as YouTube videos. They spend an average of 12 hours and 35 minutes a week doing this. Korea was the country that spends the most time watching short videos among the 16 countries surveyed.
After short videos, it appears that streaming platforms such as Netflix are where Koreans spend the second-most amount of time online. Koreans spend an average of seven hours and 38 minutes a week watching movies and dramas, almost an hour more compared to Taiwan and Singapore.
Online shopping comes third, with an average of four hours and 39 minutes per week and social media follows with an average of four hours and 12 minutes per week.
"Koreans have a love-hate relationship with social media. They scroll their social media feed endlessly, but worry whether it might invade their lives at the same time," Cho said.
Cho also urged people to take cybersecurity more seriously so as not to fall victim to online scams or data breaches.
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