Citizens volunteer to stay home for quarantine

“I have posted photos thinking that it may encourage people to join their forces in such a hard time.”

Yoon Han-na, 36, shares photos of spending her day with her children home in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, on her social media with a hashtag “#self-lockdown” attached to the posts. You may not see any difference in her photos because they only show her four kids sitting shoulder to shoulder on the sofa to gaze at the TV screen or being tangled up altogether for fun.

However, such ordinary daily stuff is going viral with a lot of supportive comments left on her feed. A click on the hashtag leads to many more posts on other users’ daily lives. “I even feel a high level of severity and seriousness when Director of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention Jung Eun-kyeong briefs on COVID-19 on TV,” Yoon said. “I wish to see that South Korean citizens chip in and do whatever they can do even if it may accompany some level of inconvenience so that we can get our everyday life back.”

With the second wave of COVID-19 emerging in the scene, the South Korean government announced to put in place social distancing level 2.5 starting from Sunday to bring about change in the lives of citizens in the Seoul metropolitan area. With cafes and restaurants closing, they have in effect started experiencing self-lockdown. There are a growing number of online users who show support for one another by sharing photos of following quarantine rules in their daily lives just as Yoon does with her four children.

Kim Dong-hwa, a choreographer in Ulsan, shares several video clips of dancing at his home to a piece of music he composed. “You are likely to feel demotivated and lost at the thought of not being able to do anything else. I decided to perk myself up by trying to find what I can do so that is why I have posted my dancing videos.”

There are thousands of online posts with hashtags such as “#self-lockdown,” “#self-social-distancing,” “self-quarantine” and the like attached to them. Some users give a supportive message to one another by sharing posts of piling up disposable cups with their children or cooking a home-made meal on their own. Reminding themselves of how precious daily life is, others post throwback photos of their overseas trips before COVID-19 hit the globe.

Kim Ki-hoon, a 35-year-old man in Gangseo District, Seoul, posted a writing to promote self-quarantine on his social media on Saturday. His pictures show his family setting up a tent to get some camping vibes or letting his two kids having fun in a mini-sized pool in the living room. However, self-quarantine is a pleasure thing to do to Kim, a father of a boy twin suffering a brain injury, for which treatment should be given at a rehab center on a regular basis but it has been held back by COVID-19. “I used to arrange performances and events to help the socially marginalized, but things have been hard on me since the pandemic started,” Kim said. “I know that we all are having a hard time but my hope is to make sure that we do not give in but look on the brighter side. I am sure that a happier daily life will await us once we overcome this crisis.”


blick@donga.com