How modern Oblomovs live: Voluntary recluses in the virtual jungle

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The term is a little over 20 years old, but for Japan, people who voluntarily settle at home and do not want to go out are already becoming a real problem. According to rough estimates, there are already more than a million of them in the Land of the Rising Sun, and this number is close to 1% of the population. The hickey movement is gradually spreading around the world and has already reached Russia.

Who are hikikomori

Sometimes we all want to be on a desert island, preferably with all the amenities and Internet access. The modern world is dangerous because almost any of our wishes can come true sooner or later. The new Robinsons now live in their own apartments, enjoying the benefits of civilization, and believe that voluntary isolation is exactly the way of life that suits them. Some of the most persistent hikikomori have not been on the street for 20-30 years. Many of these people are really sick, some can rightfully be called "drones" and "parasites", but it must be admitted that hickey all over the world are becoming more and more, and with the development of communications and delivery services, it is possible that Russia will soon face with this problem.

(excerpt from a post by a modern hikikomori)

This is a strange word, which in our open spaces has already begun to be converted into "kikimor", especially since the result of many years of seclusion is similar to these characters of the Russian epic, comes from Japanese, which literally means "being in solitude." In Japan, the medical term has already been adopted, according to which hikikomori are persons who refuse to leave the parental home, isolate themselves from society and family in a separate room for more than six months and do not have any work or earnings. So if you are just a freelancer who rarely gets to the store, then it is too early to refer you to the noble culture of hickey.

What do they live on and what do they do

Most of these people live on their parents' money or receive unemployment benefits. Some find remote work on the Internet, but these seem to be a minority, since any work involves at least minimal communication. Hickey often restrict contact even with those people who ensure their existence, becoming a recluse of one room. This "disease" affects mainly wealthy families, which can feed an extra loafer.

(excerpt from a post by a modern hikikomori)

The world of most voluntary loners is virtual reality (some, by the way, use books in the old-fashioned way), and social networking replaces friends, whom hickey usually doesn't have many. Today, most of the problems can be solved via the Internet - ordering the delivery of food and goods, making an online trip or engaging in self-development, or you can just spend time consuming media content, everyone does what he wants. The development of this dangerous trend is precisely connected with the development of the World Wide Web, which allows people to satisfy their hunger for information without leaving their own bed. Many hickey lower themselves physically, rarely wash and do not cut their hair, especially if they live completely alone.

How many hickey today

According to a 2010 Japanese government report, there were 700,000 hikikomori individuals in the country. Today it is assumed that there are many more. However, it is difficult to calculate the exact number of such citizens, since they differ in that they do not make contact with strangers. It is known that this phenomenon is already found all over the world, although, of course, not to the same extent as in Japan. Countries with developed economies suffer the most from it, since they simply have the opportunity to live without doing anything.

The scary thing is that most often young people become voluntary recluses - the "gold reserve" of the nation, which, as a result, is excluded from society. The average age of hikki in Japan is 30 years, as it also includes “older” recluses who have been sitting at home for more than 20 years. The Japanese government is already puzzled by the "Problem of 2030" - by this time the parents of the "first wave" hikikomori will begin to die, and the question of the fate of these strange and, in general, unhappy people will be fully raised. Considering that already now we are talking about hundreds of thousands of people, and, according to experts, about 1.5 million more young Japanese are on the verge of leaving society, then voluntary outcasts will soon become a real disaster.

Hickey in Russia

(I. A. Goncharov "Oblomov")

Surprisingly, you sometimes find contemporary problems in our classics. Of course, Ilya Ilyich cannot be compared with modern hickey, but if he lived today, he would have had all the makings of becoming a voluntary recluse. In Russia, it is customary to call such young people not to a new subculture, but to call them “lazy people”, “freeloaders” and “boobies” and look for a solution to the problem in the field of applied home pedagogy (what exactly to “apply” to the fifth point depends on family traditions). Until recently, this was enough to save the younger generation.

I must say that the problem of the Japanese in this case is not that they pamper their children and let them sit on their necks, we are also inclined to this; and even a not too highly developed economy and an overabundance of benefits that allow such phenomena to flourish. Japan is notable for its too rigid framework, into which society drives the future generation almost from birth. And this is the root of most of their psychological problems. Therefore, experts do not expect an epidemic of hikikomori comparable to the Japanese in Russia. However, the facts show that young people are beginning to appear in our country, choosing solitude for themselves as a way of avoiding problems, and with the development of the virtual information sphere, their number will, apparently, increase.

Representatives of any subculture, whether we like them or not, are part of our society. Therefore, you need to know about them in order to help if necessary. The collection of photographs of the Czech photographer David Tesinski "Subcultures of the World", is a collection of portraits of the marginal, collected over 10 years of travel.