In recent years, newspapers in South Korea have struggled to stay relevant for mainstream readers, many of whom consume news on major portals instead of media websites. The dominance of portals in the news market, mostly led by two heavyweights Naver and Kakao, is unlikely to change in 2021. Rather, they are very likely to strengthen their influence further, an outlook that poses more questions for the embattled print newspaper companies. In an ideal situation, an individual newspaper runs it

A host of Google services including YouTube and Gmail were down for about an hour on Monday, leading to the trending hashtag “#YouTubeDOWN.” For those who rely heavily on Google’s productivity services, the outage is a sobering reminder that their digital life is essentially breakable at any moment. At a time when a growing number of people work from home with the help of a wide array of digital devices, sudden glitches of the internet network, core business-related services a

Blizzard had prepared a lot for the Nov. 24 launch of Shadowlands, the eighth expansion pack for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft. But it didn’t see the strange mini boom coming in South Korea. Let’s lay out the basic facts before moving to the big question of why the expansion is now the talk of the town among middle-aged gamers here. Whenever Blizzard has put out a new episode for WoW, there has been a logjam in the company’s servers as m

Last week, Google announced it would change its storage policy for Google Photos, which is now being used by more than 1 billion people across the globe. Simply put, it will end its free unlimited photo storage service from June, 2021. To back up more photos, users have to sign up for a paid plan. I was neither shocked nor disappointed. I had already seen Google and other big tech companies calling it quits on their “innovative” services overnight. They didn’t -- and never w

Evernote, a note-taking and archiving app, used to provide a much-needed free service to users with multiple devices for different platforms. I loved Evernote’s excellent functionality that offers access to my personal data on multiple platforms including desktop PC, smartphones and tablet computers. I have gratefully saved and organized my data in the free version of Evernote in the past 10 years. My data was synchronized seamlessly from my PC at home to smartphones on the go, and I l

Genshin Impact, a free-to-play action role-playing game, is evoking a slew of intriguing questions involving plagiarism in game development and the protection of user data. Since the Sept. 28 global release, Genshin Impact has quickly gained a sizable user base in South Korea, thanks to its cute anime characters as well as the beautifully rendered backgrounds and intricate battle system. The game, developed and published by China-based miHoYo, is available on mobile phones, PC and the Play

Last Saturday, singer IU’s newest live performance video was revealed on YouTube. It was a landmark event since the video was formatted in 8K resolution, which easily outperforms 4K display. A small number of those who purchased the prohibitively expensive and visually expansive 88-inch OLED TV from LG Electronics were lucky enough to get a glimpse of what the 8K technology could offer, thanks to the stunning image featuring IU’s equally exquisite live performance. Just in case y

When technology advances and related gadgets become widely available, what tends to happen is a steady decrease in hardware prices. Mainstream smartphones are getting pricier each year, putting a strain on limited household budgets. Of course, Korean consumers can get popular smartphones from Samsung Electronics and Apple at a discount by signing up for data plans with mobile carriers. But even with such deals, the prices for the latest Galaxy and iPhone series are easily above 1 million won

When I was a kid, I enjoyed drawing. I created, in my view, not-so-bad paintings. I won some awards at drawing contests. My classmates said I was talented. I even dreamed of becoming a cartoonist. Full of confidence, I had asked my parents to pay for a private art class. I attended art class far more enthusiastically than regular classes at school, learning various basic techniques from simple drawing to watercolor and oil paintings. Naturally, drawing is one of my main hobbies. Somehow, I h

Once in a while, a well-made game hits the market, gets mostly positive reviews from gamers and rakes in handsome profits over an extended period. To achieve this daunting goal, it must have two main elements: deeply entertaining gameplay and responsive communication with gamers. Guardian Tales, a mobile game launched by Kakao Games on July 16, met the first condition, but has failed to meet the second, touching off a wave of disputes in the domestic gaming industry. The once-popular mobile

Fashion stylist Han Hye-yeon and singer Kang Min-kyung recently came under a storm of criticism for their failure to reveal that what they promote on their YouTube channels are actually product placements, or PPL. At a time when leading YouTube stars rake in tons of money through promotional events sponsored by high-profile advertisers, some reckon the outpouring of public anger against Han and Kang might have gone too far. However, a closer look at what really happened reveals the flaw in t

Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” is deeply profound and almost prophetic even when we read just the first two lines: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / And sorry I could not travel both.” Let’s not dig deeper into the entire poem since it will take days, if not months, to talk about various literary interpretations and related ideas. Instead, I will focus on the difficulty in choosing between the two choices, and hopefully a workable solution that ca

The act of wearing a mask in South Korea takes on a deeply social meaning. Masks are supposed to protect both the wearer and others from the dreadful COVID-19. But the emphasis is clearly placed on preventing the wearer from infecting neighbors, colleagues and even strangers. If I happen to forget wearing a mask in public places (including office elevators and public restrooms), I am bound to witness angry expressions deepening on the upper half of the faces of people nearby. I bet the lower h

Just like the merciless ransomware which locked down my entire hard disk drive overnight, the sudden demise of my refrigerator turned a whole array of food items into something closer to trash. It marked more than the end of a home appliance; my everyday life, aided by the modern gadget, was melting. Literally. When I woke up in the morning early this week, the beloved and always-reliable fridge had leaked a stream of water that was now trickling across the floor. When I opened the door for th

Jennifer recently opened a restaurant. She faithfully paid the rent, taxes and other sundry fees. She also hired staff, including a talented chef. She developed an incredibly tasty menu. Not long after she started her long-awaited business, a horde of customers rushed to dine out at the new restaurant. The restaurant became so famous and popular that a great number of people rode buses for hours to visit the restaurant and have a nice meal. Business, all in all, was great, and nothing would st

I had nearly perfect vision. I had no problem reading fine print. I was able to read paperbacks whose font size was deemed too small for average readers. I often read books on the bus or in rooms with poor lighting, which would surely make eye doctors frown. But I was fairly confident about my excellent vision, and I enjoyed the privilege. I bet you have already noticed that in the previous paragraph I used a past tense about my eyesight. As with many other middle-aged people, my eyesight bega

모국어 이외의 외국어를 배우는 이유는 다양합니다. 해당 외국어로 쓰여진 자료를 직접 읽고 해독하고 싶거나 원어민과 대화를 하고 싶기 때문에 열심히 단어도 외우고 문장도 반복해서 읽으며 외국어를 학습합니다. 최근에는 외국어를 열심히 배우는 과정에서 생기는 부가적인 효과에 대해서 언어학자, 심리학자, 뇌과학자 등이 연구를 많이 하고 있습니다. 이중언어 사용자(bilingual speaker)가 의사소통을 넘어 추가적인 장점을 가질 수 있다는 것이죠. 외국어를 배워서 두 가지 이상의 언어를 자유롭게 사용할 수 있게 되면 뇌에 긍정적인 효과를 준다는 것이 학술적인 논점의 핵심입니다. 사실 외국어뿐만 아니라 학교에서 새로운 학문을 배우거나 하면 당연히 뇌 발달에 좋은 영향을 준다는 것은 그냥 상식적인 추론으로도 알 수 있는 것인데요, 이중언어나 다중언어(multilingual) 사용자의 경우는 좀 더 구체적인 측면이 부각되고 있습니다. 일단 뇌에 큰 영향을 줄 수 있으며, 특히

Children’s books, especially those with lots of illustrations, are generally short in length. Despite this, the genre offers a treasure trove of creative imagination and wonderful pictures. Sadly, some Korean bloggers are exploiting the genre in the name of sharing information and knowledge with their friends. Once they buy a picture book, they scan it through an app on their smartphones and upload the digital copies on their personal blogs or online communities. Since some picture books

South Korea is implementing an unprecedented educational experiment for remote learning due to the coronavirus pandemic that is sweeping the entire world. The question is whether the country can get something positive out of its massive experiment, instead of losing hope in the face of loud complaints about the still fledgling virtual learning environment. On Wednesday, some 3.12 million students across the nation started the new semester through online learning. They were the second group

When I got out of my apartment and took the elevator down to the first floor, I happened to stand with a neighbor who did not wear a face mask. I got a little nervous about his apparent violation of basic guidelines to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, but tried not to express such a feeling. But the thought of getting infected in an enclosed space made me feel uneasy during the brief elevator ride. Is this too much? Perhaps I overreacted a bit. But a number of people in South K