Kim Ji-yeon, a 25-year-old Seoulite, starts her day by checking her Instagram. She usually posts selfies, photos of food she ate and sometimes pictures of her dog.

“I usually post something before I go to bed,” she said. “And it feels nice to wake up in the morning and find out how people responded. It’s like my morning ritual.”

Kim said she is addicted to her smartphone “just as much as everyone else she knows.” She carries it with her everywhere, all the time, every day. She charges her phone by the bed every night. One of her biggest anxieties in fact has to do with the battery dying.

“I get anxious whenever I forget my phone charger,” she said. “It feels like I’m missing out on life when my phone is dead. I have no problem admitting that a big portion of my life exists in the online world. And it’s not just me -- most people are connected in KakaoTalk group chat rooms as much as they are in offline gatherings.”

Kim is one of many South Korean women who spend a significant amount of their time socializing via smartphone apps and social media. A recent study by Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, in fact, found that Korean women are twice more likely to be addicted to smart devices as their male counterparts. For the study, psychiatrists at the hospital surveyed 2,281 women and 2,573 men. Among the female participants, 17.9 percent were addicted to their smartphones, while only 9.4 percent of the surveyed men experienced the same.

“We assume one of the reasons behind the statistics is that women tend to form more social relationships online than men do,” said Kim Dae-jin, a psychiatrist who organized the study.

The study also found that depression and high activity of the behavioral inhibition system is related to smartphone addiction among South Koreans. Koreans who were depressed or had high activity of the BIS -- meaning they tend to avoid human interactions and conflicts in order to prevent negative emotions such as fear, sadness and anxiety -- were more likely to be addicted to smartphones and have a limited social network offline. 

A study last year by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs found that Korean women, especially those who are financially and socially vulnerable, were much more prone to depression than their male counterparts. While 9.1 percent of all Korean women experience the mental condition at least once in their lives, only 4.3 percent of Korean men go through the same, according to the study.

Notably, 31.7 percent of Korean women who never attended high school have been depressed in the past, the study showed. Reasons included poor work and life balance, postpartum stress and domestic abuse experienced during childhood.

The study by Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital claimed that smartphone addiction is, in some ways, a form of escapism for those who are depressed. “When one is stressed and experiencing negative emotions, it’s natural for him or her to find a place where they can be free from their fear and anxieties,” the report said. “The online world gives people anonymity and therefore gives them a chance to be somebody else, and act differently. This can be addictive to those who are unhappy with themselves in the offline world, because you don’t get the kind of endorsements you get online in your real life.”

In terms of those with high activity of the BIS, researchers said interacting online can be less stressful for those who are afraid of human conflicts or difficult relationships.

“Those who are highly sensitive to negative emotions tend to prefer socializing online, because they want to avoid conflicts that can occur when interacting with others in person. And they feel they can protect themselves better online, as they can be anonymous.”

Kim said she is just as social offline as she is online, but agreed that avoiding those she doesn’t want to associate with is much easier in the virtual world. “You can easily cut them off by blocking them or just erasing your account altogether,” she said. “I guess it’s both convenient and somewhat sad at the same time.”

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)