Surfing can be hazardous to your health.

If anything, Korea is a country of extremes. Everything here seems fad-based. I think it may come from Korea's history. It has been invaded a reported 700 times over the years, and each time they got independence I imagine they had to move quickly to get to the next level before the next war or occupation.

Lately (well, not really lately...in 1945) the Japanese Occupation ended. Then the Korean War occurred from 1950-3. After that there was turmoil, but in 1961 Park Chung Hee took over as dictator/president. He had elections, in which everyone was 'encouraged' to vote, but he was still a dictator. After his assassination in 1979 the next few leaders were basically of the same ilk. President Park did some amazing things in his time, however. He took an incredibly backward country and set it on the road to industrialization. Japan had stripped Korea of its resources, people and even its language and culture (many buildings and palaces were razed and Japanese was the official language here from 1910-1945) but President Park was determined to change that. He orchestrated the "Han River Miracle" (the Han River, or Hangang 한강 is the main river in Seoul/Korea) and Korea made terrific strides, if at the expense of some civil liberties.

Fastforward to the present, and my point, and we see that Korea is the world's #1 wired nation. More than Canada, Finland and way beyond the U.S.A. There was a craze to have PC방s (PC bangs or rooms) EVERYWHERE in the country. As well, instead of PlayStation-like games where players go against the computer or one or two people, Korean gamers (always the communal types) play online games with hundreds or thousands of others. in typical Korean fashion, gamers who left their seat for a second could not pause their game...in fact, they may be eliminated. So PCbang owners sold drinks, ramen nooodles and other junk to their clientele. It was just a matter of time before someone died, as related in this article. Yes, someone died from being on the PC. People thought he was just sleeping (imagine how long he was there before they really checked him out) but, alas, he was the first known casulty of the Net in Korea, maybe the world.

Korea, built on extremes, both good and bad.