We’ve seen the headlines, the official statements, the posts, and members of each and every K-Pop group that most of us have loved sitting out of their schedules and promotions recently, and as we write new stories about these news that seem to come every week, we began to wonder – is having an anxiety disorder a trend nowadays for K-Pop idols?
Last year alone witnessed multiple headlines related to K-Pop idols having anxiety. But what exactly leads to these idols having anxiety in the first place?
Here’s what we think.
Rapidly changing environment
Idols tend to cope up with the rigorous expectations of their fans, with many of those sometimes unacceptable and inhumane. One could think that idols are fantasy robots that are designed to be perfect in any way, and idols should be doing their best in order to keep up with that.
Nowadays, perspective against idols can be changed by a single move, whether it’s intentional or not. A single news article from someone like Dispatch could change everything, including idol’s status from being an A-list act to a nobody, or from being loved to being hated by many. In fact, idols are living in fear due to this phenomenon among netizens and media.
Rumors are now quick to circulate online due to the emergence of social networking sites (SNS), and with idols having access to the internet as well, they are able to read all the comments netizens are throwing out against them, whether it may be positive or negative.
Unfortunately, that is now becoming the industry norm.
Malicious comments and rumors
Headlines about companies taking actions against malicious comments and rumors are one of the headlines of 2019, as the ‘toxic’ culture and internet etiquette plagued K-Pop and Hallyu in general. With every move of an idol being monitored, idols are doing doing their best to spare themselves and their groups from malicious comments and rumors.
It is presumed that being an K-Pop idol or actor sometimes mean you have to give up the word ‘privacy’. However, it is not the case at all times.
And even though idols say on television that they don’t really harm them, it’s just a cover up of how they actually feel. Let me say that no one would feel better after reading something that you don’t like or want to be revealed, or if one talks shit about you even if you did your best.
Let last year’s cases of former K-Pop idols Sulli and Goo Hara be the strong examples, who succumbed first to anxiety then depression as they face strong malicious comments and hatred from absolutely ridiculous reasons and netizens.
Sadly, it is frequently nowadays and idols are just building up the pain inside, which leads to a rising fear on facing people.
Overthinking
Everyone knows that idols are trained to have the mentality of being perfect for their fans, and this mentality leads to what we currently see nowadays. Idols are thinking every single time about how they’ll cope up with the competition, preventing malicious rumors to spread and spare themselves from malicious comments. Whatever the case is, overthinking is simply bad for everyone’s mental health.
Overworking
Idols, whether you are rookie or a seasoned one, are tend to be exposed on overworking as most are attending multiple schedules every single day. Performing, dancing/singing in a single day as well as meeting fans might sound simple for some, but with the heavy preparations each of these schedules are taking, time to rest for idols were extremely deteriorating and most only gets sleeps of like one or two hours each day, which is extremely unhealthy.
It could be the time to change the working culture among idols, so that despite the desire for us to see more of our beloved idols, they would get enough rest instead so that we could be seeing them healthier and stronger, and prevent these stories of anxiety taking over K-Pop idols. -HallyuLife.com
