Some teens fear the day they have to take off their mask

Social Affairs

Published: 21 Jul. 2022, 15:40

Some teens fear the day they have to take off their mask

A student talks about a new trend among students of not taking off their masks at school in a YouTube video uploaded on the "Oh My School" channel. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

With 2022 marking the third year of students having to wear masks at school due to the Covid-19 pandemic, some teenagers confess to being afraid to take off their masks.

Magikkun, a buzzword that appeared shortly after mask mandates were put in place, is a portmanteau of the word mask and the Korean word sagikkun, which means a trickster or scammer. It refers to when a person appears attractive when wearing a mask, but not so much after taking it off.

On Tuesday, a video titled “Confessions of teenagers who don’t take off their masks” was uploaded on the YouTube channel “Oh My School.” The channel’s content mostly covers trends among teenagers and school life. In the video, four students talked about how their school lives changed after Covid-19.

The students said that partitions were set up in the school cafeteria so that they couldn’t face each other while eating lunch, barring them from chatting with their friends. The students then said that many of their friends don’t eat at school because they do not want to take off their masks.

“Some kids don’t eat at all during school hours because they don’t want to be seen without a mask,” said one student in the video.

“Taking off masks has become somewhat traumatic for us,” another student commented. “Kids are afraid to take off their masks because they may receive negative reactions or accusations of being a magikkun from others.”

“It’s considered rude when someone doesn’t have makeup on under their mask,” said another student. “Taking off masks is almost like taking off your underwear.”

Comments on the video were divided. Some sympathized with the students, leaving comments like “I understand this tendency because I also had a strong desire as an adolescent to look attractive and look my best in front of others,” and “Students at that age are very sensitive about their looks, so it’s natural.” Other viewers disagreed, with some leaving comments such as “That's ridiculous,” and “It’s your own loss if you don’t eat anything at school just because you don't want to show your face.”

BY HAN YE-SEUL [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]