The Sungkyun Times

             The National Assembly election is over. The election turnout was the lowest ever with only 20% of people in their twenties turning out at the poll stations. The number of young people — particularly, university students — with indifference to political affairs has been growing in recent years. Many of them don’t hold their own views or ideas about social issues, and they have become “socially-impaired,” roaming the streets as “invisible” citizens.

             It doesn’t come as a surprise that no one in Korea is completely satisfied with many social issues, such as living conditions, education, and so forth. Although the invisible citizens, (like the politically active people), have complaints as well, they aren’t interested in partaking in any political activities. That is, they seem uncomfortable initiating any change in society for themselves. What is even worse is that they take for granted that their public opinion is of no importance. In the 1970s and 1980s, university was regarded as the heartland of public opinion, especially as regards social conditions. University students in those days were looked upon as the most powerful watchdogs; nowadays, university students are nothing more than mute puppies when it comes to keeping a watchful eye on politics. To them, politics is a concern outside of this world. This is a good enough reason to give people of older generation the idea that young people are a bunch of political-ignoramuses.

             Then again, it is amusing to note that such anti-political phenomena also bear some typical characteristics. The concept of a society has changed in that more channels are now open for people to participate in social matters. We can easily discover upon a plethora of readers’ comments below newspaper articles on the internet, and this undoubtedly has an impact on many people. This basically means that the political participation tools have changed. The world-wide-web could give a tremendous boost to political movements. Another cause of the phenomenon lies in the change in people’s interests. University students are neither interested in politics nor social problems; they spend more time dealing with individual problems, such as employment or career development. This obviously is in tune with the change in society which places the students in a position to focus more on individual issues. When it’s all said and done, are we even sure that anti-political phenomenon is bad?

              At any rate, the question lingers: Are “invisible” citizens real, active citizens? “Citizenship” is the fact of belonging to a community, and it carries with it the duty to political participation. However, there are many bystanders who lack political interest or desire for change, and the number is seemingly growing as we speak.