Korean Drama And Pandemic Covid-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic that has occurred since the end of 2019 until now has caused various changes in people's behavior. One of the significant changes is the existence of social restrictions, where people are asked to stay at home and avoid activities in a crowd. One of the things that many people, especially students, do to fill their activities at home is watching Korean dramas. Over the past few years Korean entertainment fever has occurred in Indonesia, but during the pandemic there has been an increase in people watching Korean dramas. This study aimed to determine the impact of watching Korean dramas on the psychological condition of respondents during the pandemic. This study used a qualitative exploratory method, in which there were five respondents (4 women, 1 man), all of whom were students in Central Java who watched Korean dramas. The data collected from interview and data analysis used was coding and categorization. The results showed that the five respondents experienced an increase in the frequency and duration of watching Korean dramas during the pandemic. They felt various negative thoughts and feelings related to the pandemic. The impact felt by watching Korean dramas is this activity was seen as a distraction from abundance and stressful information about the pandemic, to entertain, to reduce stress, to improve mood, and help them to stay at home. On the other hand, the negative effects were forgetfulness of time, reluctance to do other activities outside of watching drama, extravagant internet quotas, physical impacts, and frequent fantasies. Nonetheless, the respondents rated that watching Korean dramas helped them through the period of social distancing during the pandemic.