There are few guilty pleasures as satisfying as online shopping: that exciting moment of searching until you find what suits you best and then put it in the cart. You’ll enjoy it later, when it reaches your hands. Or not, because in reality the process itself is almost more enjoyable than the product in question. Not to mention something obvious: to buy you need to have money in your account and not need it for other purposes, such as paying rent or eating.
If you can’t afford the real experience, South Korea’s youth has found a way of tricking the brain into releasing that dopamine from shopping: apps that sell nothing. Fake it until you make it.
What is happening. He Korean Times collects the phenomenon of dopamine sites and its operation in two types of apps: those for food delivery and those for smoking breaks, in which you have a virtual cigarette with other people with that banal conversation typical of the occasion. Thus, you can consult menus, select items to add to the cart and know delivery times or restaurant ratings without closing the transaction. And you can also say, if you prefer, something like “Tuesday, you’re sick of shit” in a virtual room.
Kim Heon-sik, a professor at Jungwon University, connects these apps that do not sell anything with the culture of Muk Bangin which people watch other people eating tremendous amounts of food. Curiosity, voyeurism and satisfying the gluttony of whoever is on the other side of the screen without having to put anything in their mouth. The vicarious satisfaction at its finest.
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Why is it important. On the one hand, these dopamine sites function as a snitch on the mental health of a generation: in South Korea, digital exhaustion and smartphone dependence are already public health problems. documented with a star risk factor: anxiety.
On the other hand, they reveal a disconnection between two worlds: the economic and the neurological. Delivery and ecommerce apps have been refining their interfaces and experience for years to enhance the impulse to buy: infinite scrolls, exclusive offers for a limited time (spoiler: they never end), incessant dripping of notifications… the “technology of persuasion” that coined Tristan Harrisformer Google designer. The result is that according to neurosciencedopamine is released in anticipation, not upon receiving the order. Dopamine sites do exactly the same thing, but at zero cost, something ideal for a generation that cannot afford that expense.
Context. That deliberate design of apps and the release of dopamine can lead to a shopping addiction… if you have the money. The point is that Korean youth do not have it: a recent report from Bank of Korea portrays their dangerous situation. Every year that a young person spends without work reduces their future salary by 6.7%, their debt has increased and the proportion of them living in precarious housing went from 5.6% in 2010 to 11.5% in 2023. OECD confirms that the Korean youth employment rate is below average and that they practically wait in line to access large companies or the public sector.
This structural problem already has a name: Sampo generationwhich refers to the three renunciations of this youth, love, marriage and being a father or mother, caused by unstable jobs and high educational debts.
In detail. The psychological mechanism behind those apps that sell nothing It is well documented: The brain does not distinguish well between the process of asking for food and the simulation of asking for it, so dopamine acts mainly in that search and anticipation phase, not when receiving the reward. That’s why the fake app works: it gives the reward system what activates the process without having to swipe the card.
Regarding smoking break apps, more of the same: this study on loneliness in Korean adults found that those young people most exposed to the digital environment reported significantly higher levels of loneliness than previous generations. Seeing that there are more people online at the same time, even if they are complete strangers and you don’t talk to them, activates the feeling of social presence, which reduces anxiety.
Yes, but. The Korean Times report echoes few testimonies about this phenomenon, but there is no data on how many people use these apps or how frequently. Even if it were a trend, the million-dollar question is what effect these apps that sell nothing have: it is true that they have no impact on the wallets of those who use them and that they occasionally provide relief, but also that they do not help solve the problem behind: anxiety, loneliness and dependency linked to a precariousness of their life expectations.
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