My Kdrama Addiction

Well I just watched another Kdrama and it gave me some perspective on life. When I was in my second year of college I was introduced to Kdramas- my first one was Boys Over Flowers, for all you Kdrama addicts you'd know what I'm talking about. Unbelievably cheesy and over the top yet I loved it, I was totally addicted staying up till the depths of the night watching it. And I know from my friends I'm not the only one who did this. So as the story goes, I got used to Romantic comedy Kdrama clichés but I loved it all the same. I'll outline the reasons why I liked Kdramas so much:

1) It was so cheesy and unrealistic it was almost an alternate universe to my own 

2) it was a different culture one which I knew nothing about but began to as I watched more

3) it was a bonding activity (I could talk about it with my friends)

4) it is so dramatic and over the top piling on cliché(love triangle, heir falling for poor girl...you know the drill) on cliché, as well as melodrama in everything. As you know I love emotions I believe them to be like Art so naturally I was interested in this. And I'm a hopeless romantic.

I'd say the same reasons apply even now but added to it is the fact that I'm not very busy right now. Idleness is never good is it? 

Well up until I got dissatisfied with the dramas, there nothing 'new' I suppose it's like the new feeling of clothes. It wore off, so I stopped for a while. But then I found some dramas that had interesting story lines : revenge, betrayal and so on. And so my addiction began again. But what I found is although these dramas were exciting and fast paced I found them to be kind of 'eh' at the end. Maybe because it ended? And also the endings weren't always great. But whether it was a sad or happy ending even if it had a great ending, once it's ended you realise it's just a drama. Nothing more to it. So I realised its pretty pointless, and I hate addictions, I hate anything that has control over me. So I decided to stop with dramas, because I believe Kdramas to be harmful not only for the addiction but other reasons which I will state below:

1) although it was nice learning about a new culture, Korean Culture isn't as progressed as our 'societies' what I mean by that is they still hold (not all!) racist views, in the sense that they look down on other races, and I can vouch for this as I have watched a drama that was blatantly racist (I didn't watch that drama anymore out of principle, it wasn't even good anyway!) and I have watched videos of teachers (not native ) teaching English in Korea who have said they (students )still hold very discriminatory views. I understand not everyone is going to hold the same views that's fair enough, but atleast refrain from displaying it in the dramas??

Obviously not every Korean is racist, it's just the Korean Culture values fair skin among other things which not every culture or society has (like money). Don't get me wrong even my culture is racist, (Bengali culture) the older generation still have backwards views which I totally don't agree with, but because they've been raised like that I suppose they don't see anything wrong with it. Anyway the reason I think its bad for sisters is because, for those sisters (who are like me)who are easily impressionable and influenced. May easily be influenced by Koreans standards of beauty. Now I'm not really fair, I'm a standard yellow (ha!) Asian, similar to a warm beige.. (Make up enthusiasts out there?)

So I'm not super fair, but I've always liked my skin tone. But when I started watching Korean Dramas, learning about their food, their culture, learning bits and bobs of their language, I felt like I wasn't good enough. That might be strange I mean it's not like I was marrying a Korean guy right? But I was thinking what if I did want to? What then? Then I thought what if I wanted to visit Korea, would people treat me differently?   I couldn't help but think I'm probably considered to be ugly in Korean culture. Probably not good enough.

But as time went on, I decided I don't want to be insecure, I don't want to worry about others views! I should be happy and comfortable in myself no matter how I look or what others think. 

2) it wastes time, it's addictive. How many hours I've spent watching dramas when I could've been with my mum. How many hours I've spent glued to my phone when my little sister wanted to hang out. 

I regret that, but not everyone watches dramas religiously. Some may watch it here and there, I wouldn't worry about that. I'd say this applies only if you're spending hours and hours.

3) at the end of the day it's a drama. Not reality, don't make the mistake I made. Trying to live my life through dramas (although my situation is different I went through periods of depression so I didn't know what else to do) it's only sad when you wake up to reality and you become more dissatisfied with life. I would definitely encourage something that you can do in your actual life. Whether it's religiously learning about a topic or learning a language, it's good to have a hobby! However use time wisely and be smart. Do not keep yourself cooped up. Spend time with family and relax. I used to my obsessed with witches in my second year of college. I used to read books about witches, watch movies etc. but it didn't take over my life. Id just dress like a witch and that was it, it was something quirky and fun. Try something like that out. If you feel life is a bit boring or uninteresting. 

I've now decided I'm going to spend my time reading all the books I got from the library. That is better for me. Not only to educate myself but to help me be who I used to be before all these dramas. (And the Kdramas!) 

I feel sorry for all the time I've wasted.

And I feel like I've come to an understanding of  Kdramas. I don't feel any need to watch them and I don't feel they are important in my life (yes pathetically I did feel the need before). But I'm not resentful to Kdramas (if that's possible) I can nod my head when I see them around and even smile. I know what we had was special at the time and I acknowledge they helped me, but I've come to a better place now, where they don't fit in. 

(This was all thanks to Bad Guy, which was very disappointing and weird towards the end, which made me rethink my love for dramas! I think I realised, dramas create emotion through scenes and actors, they are not real ((which was the reason I watched it, I loved the melo drama the way it made me feel (((hopeless romantic here))) about love and betrayal) it seems obvious but I really believed in it, but I realised when skipping scenes (waiting for the ending) I was cutting off emotion and the effect it had on me, which left the drama powerless in my eyes. Also I'd like to add that even before this particular epiphany, the illusion and naivety I had of Kdramas when I first started had long worn off, I saw many flaws and clichés looking back at previous dramas, I realised it wasn't that great long before ((maybe I was trying to hold onto it)), which my friends agreed with after looking back at Heirs, thus my perception of Kdramas had already been destroyed little by little, this was probably the last little chip that needed to be hacked off!)