Are Rocks The New Pets? Why Some South Koreans Believe So

There has been an unusual trend ongoing in the state of South Korea, people are turning up to adopt small rocks as their pets, naming them “companion stones”. This trend has come alive as people are trying to find an escape for themselves from the clutches of loneliness. They treat the stones as pets, paint their faces, give them names, set up beds for them, and spend time with them.

What Are Companion Stones?

Companion Stones are small rocks domesticated by the people, recently in South Korea. The major purpose of adopting these rocks is to deal with loneliness and burnout, while a few others have different reasons. These stones develop hope within the people who own them.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the craze developed in 2021 as a Korean TV celebrity and members of the K-pop groups Enhypen and Seventeen—specifically, Jeonghan and DK of the latter group—exhibited their pet rocks.

Soon after, a great number of Koreans started looking for pet rocks for themselves. Some of them have gone so far as to say that they use the rocks to help them deal with the growing levels of stress, loneliness, and burnout that come with work every day.

Depending on who owns them, pet rocks can be used for different things. Thirty-year-old pharmaceutical business researcher Lee So-hee claimed she frequently confides in her girl pet rock, Hongduggae. “It's an inanimate item, of course, and it cannot comprehend you. However, it can be soothing in certain ways and is similar to chatting with your dog”, she said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

The increasing popularity of pet rock ownership in South Korea may be explained by an assortment of conditions, such as overwork, stress, and burnout. In 2022, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development revealed that the nation was ranked fifth in the entire world and as the most overworked country in Asia.

Burnout and loneliness are not fresh problems among South Korean millennials.

A report announced in April 2023 by South Korea's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which CNN translated into English, estimates that 3.1% of Koreans between the ages of 19 and 39 are “reclusive lonely young people.”

A number of factors including financial difficulties, mental health troubles problems with family members, and general well-being are reported to be involved, CNN stated.

It's possible that Seoul residents who work full-time don't feel as alone as those in other places. More than 98% of grade-A offices in the nation's capital are filled, according to a November Bloomberg article, implying that remote work is becoming obsolete.