Peter Kim, 42, said there were many moments when he and his wife found it hard to have a proper conversation now that they are both smartphone owners.

“There are times when we, or at least one of us, is looking at the phone and can’t have a conversation,” he said. “It’s usually when a new update on the social networking site that arrives with a ‘ding-dong’ sound. For some reason, we put our priority on SNS messages rather than the conversation on the table.”

The Seoulite, who became a smartphone owner in April, also recalled the moment he stopped feeding his baby to reply back to a message which was so unimportant it was hard to remember what it even was.

“My baby was asking for the next spoon and I was giving her the ‘wait a second’ finger,” said Kim.

Kim is among the group of smartphone owners becoming accustomed to taking their conversations online rather than face-to-face, which is a phenomenon witnessed at any public areas such as nearby coffee shops.

At those places, many couples or group of friends are often sitting quietly looking into their smartphones even though they are sitting right next to each other.

“On many occasions, like when visiting a caf or watching television at home, I find myself and my wife grabbing our own smartphones like a habit and putting a stop to our conversation for 10 to 20 minutes,” said 30-year-old Seoulite Kang Shin-ho.

According to industry sources, the number of smartphone users in Korea has reached 21.64 million as of early December. Smartphones, beginning with Apple’s iPhone, were first introduced in the country in November 2009.

Statistics from the Korea Information Society Development Institute say that people spend an average of 99.13 minutes per day on their smartphones, with 79.56 minutes spent on calls, e-mail and text message writing and online chatting. The survey, conducted on 6,737 people, said the remaining minutes were used to watch movies, videos and listen to music, as well as social networking services and online search and e-commerce.

Another recent survey, organized by a part-time job portal called Alba Cheongook, said eight out of every 10 university students were using a smartphone.

In a survey answered by 2,263 college students across the nation, 83.8 percent said they currently owned a smartphone and that they use an average of 114.2 minutes to browse the internet through the gadget.

Although the reason for the smartphone purchase could differ, many people ultimately agreed that their lives have been made more convenient since switching from feature phones, which is supported by the increasing number of smartphone users in Korea.

“The convenience of using a smartphone is when trying to look for information like directions while I’m on the road. Also, schedule keeping comes in handy with the smartphone,” said Kim. “But I’m beginning to wonder if I use the reminder for the sake of remembering or if it’s the smartphone that’s making me forget things I should remember on my own.”

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)