A new trend is gaining popularity in South Korea — young people are buying stones instead of pets. This is how they try to cope with loneliness and burnout. The Wall Street Journal writes about this.
Office worker Koo Ah Yeon from Seoul admitted that she bought the stone instead of a pet. A 30-year-old woman changed jobs and tried to adapt to new realities, but the situation turned out to be stressful for her.
She said she did not want to burden her loved ones, so she bought a stone and began sharing her experiences with him. Koo Ah Yeon replaced the real pet with a rock pet because the item did not require care or responsibility on her part.
Pet rocks began to gain popularity in Korea in 2020 during the pandemic. On social networks, Koreans shared photos of them designing outfits, drawing faces, or putting funny stickers on them. Moreover, they later began to be sold on websites with instruction manuals.