[Talking trends] Newbies, daknunsam, fingpeu

“Newbies, daknunsam and don’t be a fingpeu!”

This is the basic principle you should keep in mind when you sign up for an online community of millennials and Gen Zers for the first time.

The word “newbie” is a combination of “new” and “being.” It refers to a newcomer to a community, a stranger to its managerial rules or jargons.

Daknunsam is an abbreviation of dakchigo nunting samgaewol, which means “Shut up and just watch what’s going on for three months.” The idea being, if you want to be a genuine member of a community, you should go through the previous posts that other users have uploaded and get the overall picture for at least three months before acting out.

The most important rule for a newbie is to avoid being a fingpeu. Fingpeu is an abbreviation of “finger princess,” meaning someone who doesn't bother searching for answers online and just asks questions without any research.

It takes one finger and a smartphone to find practically anything out these days, but there are some people who think it’s too much work and take advantage of other people to find information for them. We call those brats fingpeu rather than swearing, saying “You want other people to do what you should do because your fingers are like a princess?”

That sort of person has always existed. They used to borrow notes with a good summary from struggling students when a school exam date approached, rather than paying attention to what teachers said in class. Even after a shift in generations, some people still look for a free ride.

But I worry about one thing — baby boomers. As it gets harder to adapt to this digital era, they have a lot of questions, so many that they could be considered fingpeu. Showing an ID card and explaining the problem on online communities makes them a boomer who always bring up how old they are. Maybe the only way is to work and study hard to understand what’s going on online.

BY SEO JEONG-MIN [meantree@joongang.co.kr]