Almost reassuring

A dive into N. Korea’s world of multiplayer gaming

“Women in their 30s and 40s sit in the market and play smartphone games when they are not selling anything or have time to kill,” a source told Daily NK

As more and more North Koreans have smartphones, the country has intensified its efforts to develop a range of applications, too. North Korean developers continue to create game apps, which are reportedly quite popular among smartphone users.

All very familiar, but this aspect is even more familiar -

As smartphone-based games grow in popularity in North Korea, this has led to the rise of various social issues, however.

“Teenagers are looking at their phones when they walk on the road, when they’re on the bus for field trips to revolutionary historic sites or revolutionary battle sites, and even when the guides at revolutionary battle sites are giving their lectures,” said the source.

“Since they are looking at their phones, they don’t greet local elders even when they run into them,” he added.

Based on the source’s report, it appears that “smartphone zombies” – people absorbed in their smartphones at the expense of everything around them – are commonplace in North Korea.

Almost reassuring but not quite. If “smartphone zombies” are tolerated in North Korea, it's not an entirely reassuring angle on smartphone technology generally.