76% of people in their 20s envy people engrossed in something

The elevated stature of manias has been demonstrated through analysis of big data.

The Dong-A Ilbo and SK Planet analyzed 96,997,544 posts including SNS messages, blog posts, news reports, and comments uploaded on the Internet from Sept. 12, 2014 to Sept. 11, 2016, and surveyed the frequency of use of words meaning "deokhu" (big fans or manias), and words that are closely related to such terms.

For one, the frequency of use of the word "deokhu" or words of similar meaning increased itself sharply. The frequency at which such words were mentioned increased by about 2.7 times between Sept. 12, 2015 and Sept. 11, 2016.

Compilation of use frequencies of keywords related to "deokhu" showed that "like" was mentioned third most frequently, after "look" or "seem." The three words were followed by "person," "go," "know" and "come out" among 10 keywords. They were words that contain mostly positive values or those that are related with social relations.

There were also changes when keywords referring to objects that people like were compiled. There were a number of areas that are known as hobbies enjoyed by manias, such as "idol" (23rd), "animation" (38th), but there were also a number of words referring to daily routines including "eat" (11th), "ramen" (47th) and "paintings" (89th).

“Analysis of the top 100 relevant keywords shows that the characteristics of ‘deokhu’ groups indicate that ‘deokhu’ enjoy the positive value of life, and value social sharing,” said a source at SK Planet. “Since they are ‘extreme value-based consumers’ who spend lavishly without any reservation as they please on things and hobbies that they enjoy, markets targeting deokhu will continue to grow even during recession.”

A similar trend was also revealed in a poll concerning deokhu, which was conducted in 2,000 men and women aged 19 - 59 on July 22-27 by Macromill Embrain, a market research firm.

For one, people who actually replied that ‘they have characteristics of deokhu’ in them amounted to 27 percent, which translates into one in four people. Also, the younger the respondents in the poll, the higher the portion of people who replied "I envy someone who is engrossed in something and is working hard" was 76.4 percent among those in their 20s, 68.8 percent among those in their 30s, 64.4 percent among those in their 40s, and 56.4 percent among those in their 50s. The ratio of respondents who replied they agree on the idea that only people who have money can have keen interest in hobbies was also high (78.7 percent). In addition, one of two respondents said we live in an era when people who have enthusiasm in a specific field lead a successful life.

“The fact that there are many people who define themselves as ‘deokhu’ and that they actually engage in ‘liking and enjoying’ can be interpreted as having purchasing power, and there is a tendency that more people envy those who can afford to enjoy hobbies,” an Embrain source said,

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