Do you know any people who are currently living by themselves? Or have you ever seen the program Na Honjasandaor the drama SigSharuelhabsida? Actually, the number of people living alone in the Republic of Korea has rapidly increased. Based on this fact, society is slowly starting to pay more attention to these people who are living on their own. Statistics found that the number single-person households' was only 9% of the general population in 1990. However, this has increased to23.9%in 2012, and it is estimated that it could reach 27% by the year 2015.That will be the equivalent of roughly one-quarter of the total population. Statistics are also predicting that within the next year, the proportion of single person households' will outnumber the proportion of family households that consist of four people. This increasing single-person household phenomenon has changed various fields in our society and it is also affecting the culture of Korea. As more and more products for single-person households started to enter the market, new concepts such as the Solo Economy came into existence. This has created a big market for business as many services and products now solely cater for these people. Agencies have also started to offer services, which cannot be done by these individuals themselves. Originally, cleaning agents HelpKorea provided cleaning services only. But now various services like plumbing and errand services are provided. “In the past, I have focused on only cleaning. But service requests were increased. Eventually I had to start offering various services.” said a company official.

Since many people feel awkward ordering food in restaurants for only themselves, the numbers of single-person restaurants are also on the rise. Customers at Ichiman, a Japanese restaurant in Seoul, place their orders at a vending machine and each table contains partition boards like desks in a reading room. This is just one good example of how restaurants are also trying to meet the needs of their single-household customers. Hanashabujeong is another such restaurant and they offer ShabuShabu, a meal which is traditionally considered to be difficult to eat alone, to patrons.

As you can see, there are now loads of products and services available to these new kinds of households'. However many people still suffer from severe loneliness that accompany this new style of living.Eating with strangers while using social networking services, something that is now called Social Dining, is one way people combat the loneliness.Social dining has made its way to areas near universities too, as many students who cannot find place in a dormitory have no other option than to live by themselves. Last year, Yoon Hoo of AppaOdiga and actor Ha Jeoung Woo gained plenty of attention by creating a show called Meokbang. This shows' target audience were those who lived alone and they felt that by watching other people eating meals on TV might help these people feel like they have a companion with whom they could share their meals.

As the number of people who live alone increase, the negative thoughts linked to living alone will slowly start to disappear. Those who lived and ate by themselves were often described as being socially awkward, isolated and gloomy. However, this is not the case anymore. Individuals must know that there is not any shame in living alone. We are the ones who need to pay more attention to these single-person households.