The strange trend of raising "pet rocks" among Korean youth

As half of South Korea's population now lives alone and works the longest hours in the world , they're always looking for ways to relax, even in strange ways, like raising pets with... ice cubes.

Some "pet rocks" of young Koreans.

Some of the ways they found were holding fake funerals by lying in coffins and attending annual competitions where participants raced to see who was best at… doing nothing.

The latest trend is to have pet rocks, each with a name and dressed as if it were a living creature. Some people even put rocks in their beds to massage them.

In a viral video on TikTok, a "pet rock" is wrapped in a towel, has cream applied, eyebrows drawn, eyes and lips painted.

A 30-year-old woman named Lee, who works in the pharmaceutical industry, calls her "baby rock" a girl and sews a winter coat for it from an old bath towel.

“I often complain to my rock about being tired at work,” Lee told the Wall Street Journal.

“I feel relieved, knowing that this is a natural stone that has undergone many changes over the years to get to its current shape,” said a 33-year-old office worker named Koo.

She named her rock “Bang-bang-i”, which means “jumping with joy”.

Koo puts ice cubes in his pocket to take with him to the gym or for a walk.

For some people, the best thing about keeping a rock is that it doesn't make demands.

“I like raising pet rocks because I don't have to worry about feeding or taking them for walks,” one person told the Korea Herald.

Many Korean pop stars, including members of bands like Seventeen and Enhypen, have also shared their interest in this hobby on social media.

A stone seller said that more than 300 such products are sold each month, with buyers usually women in their 20s or 30s. Each stone sells for between $7.5 and $11.

“This trend reminds me of when I was a kid, I would pick up pebbles from the riverbank. I would draw a face and dress it up,” one person commented online.

“Pretty cute, I want a rock like that too,” another commented.

“This shows how many people are lonely these days,” another wrote.

Stones aren't the only inanimate objects that are becoming fashionable.

Some young Chinese people use mango seeds as “pets”, grooming their “hair” and writing diaries about them. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many Chinese students made “pets” out of cardboard.

(According to Tien Phong)

Source: https://baovinhphuc.com.vn/Multimedia/Images/Id/110848/Xu-huong-nuoi-%E2%80%9Cda-cung%E2%80%9D-ky-la-cua-thanh-nien-Han-Quoc