[TALKING TRENDS] "Honnollog"

Seo Jeong-min
The author is a senior reporter of the JoongAng Ilbo.

Honnollog is an abbreviation of honja noneun V-log, with honja meaning alone and nolda or noneun meaning have fun in Korean. It refers to a video blog that shows a person enjoying their own time.

In recent years, young Koreans have got to feel more comfortable being alone as the Covid-19 pandemic forced us to be more isolated. They started filming themselves enjoying hon-co, or honja coffee, meaning drinking coffee alone, hon-gong, or honja gonbu, meaning studying alone, hon-un, or honja undong, meaning working out alone, hon-cono, or honja coin noraebang, meaning doing karaoke alone, hon-yeong, or honja yeonghwa, meaning watching movies alone, hon-saeng, or honja saeng-il, meaning spending your birthday alone and hon-sho, or honja shopping, meaning to go shopping alone.

It seems that honnol culture has become a new trend.

Young Koreans have gone honnollog not because they don’t have friends to spend time with, but because people who can have fun alone are considered to have limitless energy and love their own lives.

They are even called godsaengler. Godsaeng is a combination of god and insaeng, which means life. Godsaenglers are people who know the taste of a little bit of happiness and success, trying new things restlessly and passionately instead of chasing an extravagant, empty life.

In a nutshell, the main point of honnollog is to record one’s own life where you pursue meaningful and enjoyable stuff, not wasting time, even when you face some moments you need to spend alone.

You can fully enjoy your freedom and get what you want without any distractions. And you can film those moments to make it into video content to upload on your social media page. You get encouraged with those “likes” sent from your followers and form a type of bond with them online. It’s like killing three birds with one stone.

Feeling not alone even when you’re alone is something desirable. But when asked why they film honnollog, some people say they feel more comfortable knowing that somebody is watching them.

In some way, it’s bittersweet.

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