Partner Walking: Target Digital Intervention for Loneliness; Cosmetic Surgery and the Formation of the South Korean National Identity

My technical project was inspired by trends of increasing reported loneliness in several OECD nations and outlines a proposal for a mobile app targeting loneliness and social isolation by connecting users within an established community to go on walks with one another. It also describes an experimental design for studying the efficacy of partner walking as a loneliness intervention as well as the mobile app as a tool for facilitating partner walking. My STS research was motivated by my frustration in the lack of nuance and attention to local factors within western discourse on cosmetic surgery in South Korea. My research paper examines the historical and contemporary socioeconomic factors responsible for the emergence of South Korea at the forefront of the global cosmetic surgery industry in both innovation and marketing while touching on the consequential aspects of this dominance.

Rapid increases in internet and smartphone use have been linked to rising rates of loneliness and depressive symptoms, with roughly 30 percent of young adults reporting feeling lonely frequently. While digital technologies can help maintain ties, asynchronous communication often fails to produce a genuine sense of connection: users may feel ignored or invisible when peers don’t respond. By contrast, in-person loneliness interventions that incorporate both physical and social activity have shown promise in reducing reported loneliness. To bridge the gap between digital convenience and in-person interaction, I propose a mobile app that matches community members for partner walks. Users supply optional profile details (age, interests, etc.), and are able to message other app users. Calendar availability, and map-based route planning enable participants to coordinate walks. When walking, the app tracks steps and duration (but not GPS location) and encrypts all messaging. Privacy is maintained by collecting only essential data and storing biographical fields only with consent. The app will be deployed in a two-month study with undergraduates. Users will complete a baseline survey, then participate in a one-month incentivized trial. Then they will complete a follow up survey, and a second trial without incentives, ending in a final exit survey. Usage logs and survey responses will be analyzed to assess whether partner walking seems effective at reducing loneliness or if the app simply attracts less-lonely participants. Future work could adapt the platform for other group activities (sports leagues, disability-friendly events) and integrate with community organizations to broaden reach.

South Korea’s exceptional per-capita rate of cosmetic surgery is the outcome of intertwined historical, cultural, and geopolitical forces that together shaped a distinct national identity. Before the twentieth century, Koreans identified primarily with locality and lineage rather than the then abstract concept of a nation. Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945) and the Korean War (1950–53) spurred the construction of the minjok, an ethnically defined Korean nation, which sought to differentiate Koreans from Japanese and embraced certain Western features as symbols of modernity. Early reconstructive surgeries by American military surgeons introduced blepharoplasty, one of the most popular procedures, as a means of westernizing the appearance of Korean eyes. In the 1960s–70s, as nationalist sentiment shifted toward reclaiming suppressed folk traditions, the practice of gwansang (shamanic face-reading) was rehabilitated as part of South Korea’s cultural heritage. Gwansang’s belief in facial markers of destiny reinforced “lookism”, the conviction that appearance determines social and economic success. The impact of lookism can be felt in South Korea’s ultra-competitive job market where many employers require applicants to submit a portrait along with their resume. Today, facial surgeries account for over an outsize proportion of procedures in South Korea compared to other nations. Since the 1990s, the Korean Wave (Hallyu) has globalized a novel aesthetic, V-line jaws, double eyelids, “glass skin”, blending both traditional and adopted western beauty standards. Government policies (tax deductions for surgery, streamlined medical-tourist visas) and destination branding like Gangnam’s “Beauty Belt”, have institutionalized cosmetic surgery as a major export generating billions annually. However, this success highlights the nations fraught relationship with both wealth and gender inequality and exemplifies how technology and nationalism can collude to commodify human bodies, enforce conformity, and perpetuate new forms of social inequality. Movements like “Escape the Corset” critique the pressure women face to conform to hyper specific beauty standards, and the neoliberal framing of self-transformation as choice.

Although my projects are mostly unrelated working on both together gave me insight into how technology connects with social pressures and cultural norms. Designing the partner walking app forced me to examine user motivations and confront design challenges such as user safety and privacy. Meanwhile, my STS study of Korean cosmetic surgery revealed how cultural narratives (lookism and national identity), and government policy shape both human behavior and broader socioeconomic trends. My STS project forced me to consider how hidden social norms influence the adoption of new technologies which in turn can reinforce the same norms. Together, both projects reoriented me towards producing a more grounded, culturally aware approach to designing technology for human well-being.