Why don’t Song Joong-ki, Gong Yoo, Shinee’s Minho and other South Korean stars use Instagram or social media?
Lee Hyori recently quit Instagram after enraging Chinese fans online, but she’s far from the first famous Korean personality to shun social media – as this surprising list of K-pop and K-drama idols who avoid personal accounts and leave their feeds to fans or management proves
Earlier this month, South Korean star Lee Hyori deleted her Instagram account after being criticised by Chinese fans when she allegedly made light of the name “Mao” on a Korean TV programme, Hangout with Yoo.
In a statement, she said, “I will stop using Instagram. It isn’t necessarily because of the recent issue (although that did influence this decision somewhat), but this was a platform where I wanted to communicate with fans since I don’t promote very often and my fans were suffering from a lack of updates. It turns out, this platform is harder than I thought and it has its ways of worrying you here and there. I will consider a different way of communicating with my fans.”
Apart from Lee Hyori, there are a surprising number of Korean idols who avoid social media. Here are some of them:
Gong Yoo
Gong Yoo, Goblin in the K-drama Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, also doesn’t use social media. He described the platforms as a “poison” as people can feel deprived when they see someone with something that they cannot afford. He said he doesn’t want to give or to feel unnecessary deprivation, and as such was reluctant to open his own online accounts.
Song Joong-ki
