Seoul Metro initiated a trial run of seatless subway cars on Line 4 to alleviate congestion during peak hours. This initiative reflects the competitive nature of Korean society, akin to a game of musical chairs. In this game, participants fiercely vie for a limited number of chairs, with those unable to secure a seat promptly facing elimination. As the game unfolds, the available chairs diminish, culminating in a victorious individual who secures the last remaining seat.

According to a 2022 analysis by a local media outlet, Seoul hosts 52.1 percent of the nation's conglomerates and 21.4 percent of its small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This makes Seoul a magnet for young people from across the country seeking high-quality employment opportunities. However, the challenge lies in the limited availability of seats. While job opportunities abound, not everyone can live close to their workplace. Consequently, a pervasive outcome is the emergence of lengthy and arduous commutes. Faced with the inability to reduce the commuting populace or expand the subway car capacity, the last resort is eliminating physical seats.

When I stress the significance of embracing a healthy lifestyle, some individuals react defensively, saying, "It’s not that I’m not doing it because I don’t know." Indeed, the internal aging clock within our body ticks in real time, influenced by dietary choices, exercise routines, and stress levels. If a passing calendar year corresponds to the aging clock ticking at one year, we can call it aging at a constant speed. Accelerated aging occurs when this clock races at a pace faster than 1x. Unhealthy elements such as processed foods, excessive sugars, refined grains, sedentary habits, alcohol, tobacco, mental stress, and inadequate sleep contribute to this acceleration in the aging process.

It is widely acknowledged that genetics contribute to 30 percent of the aging process, while lifestyle choices account for the remaining 70 percent. Consistent pressure of accelerated aging can result in your biological age surpassing your chronological age. This biological age is intricately linked to the prevalence of chronic diseases in middle and old age. The accumulation of accelerated aging on the biological clock can expedite the onset of conditions like hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and dementia. Your body experiences breakdowns at an accelerated rate, and once these issues surpass a certain threshold, daily life becomes challenging. While caregivers and modern medicine may extend your lifespan, it could be characterized by compromised health. The real challenge lies in avoiding an accelerated aging lifestyle, a feat not easily achieved through individual efforts alone.

Can people with long commutes stay healthy and even start a family and raise children? They need to be able to take good care of themselves and their bodies so that their aging clocks slow down, which I liken to disposable income and describe as “disposable time.” You need disposable time to buy healthy food, buy books, and go to concerts.

First, Koreans have an absolute lack of free time. South Koreans have some of the longest commutes in the world. In 2016 data, the average daily commute for Koreans was 58 minutes, more than double the average of 28 minutes for all OECD countries. According to a 2023 Statistics Korea survey, the average commute time for workers was 72.6 minutes and 83.2 minutes for office workers in the Seoul metropolitan area. According to a 2019 Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport survey, the average daily commute time for office workers from Gyeonggi Province to Seoul was 168 minutes. In addition, Koreans work a lot. According to the 2022 OECD annual working time data, South Koreans worked 1,901 hours per year, trailing only behind Mexico, Costa Rica, and Chile.

That surpasses the OECD average of 1,752 hours and is nearly 1.5 times the 1,341 hours worked in Germany. In a society where extended working hours and lengthy commutes are the standard, the availability of absolute disposable time becomes a scarce commodity. According to Gary Evans, a professor at Cornell University in the U.S., individuals with a one-way commute of two hours, compared to those with a one-hour commute, exhibited significantly higher levels of stress hormones in their saliva, elevated subjective stress levels, and even poorer cognitive function upon arriving at work. Another analysis revealed that for every minute spent commuting, there is a corresponding reduction of 0.2 minutes in sleep, 0.04 minutes in meal preparation, and 0.03 minutes in exercise. Sleep, nutrition, and physical activity are all factors linked to longevity and the pace of aging.

The second challenge is a relative lack of disposable time. In a world where everyone is engaged in the "game of musical chairs," there is a pervasive sense that one must invest more time and effort to outpace the competition. Financial insecurity often compels individuals to take on multiple side jobs during their spare time, turning healthy eating and exercise into luxuries. Consequently, individuals are forced to allocate the remaining time for sleep, exercise, meals, and mindfulness.

However, in today's stimulus-overloaded society, this can lead to distortions in the use of disposable time. When our bodies and minds are exhausted, we turn to easy ways to relieve stress. Alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, social media, short-form videos, buying luxury goods, and commoditized travel—all become quick rewards that consume our scarce free time and disposable income. In my personal experience, commuting for over two hours each way to work—arriving home at midnight and leaving the house at 5 a.m.—coupled with my habit of consuming alcohol and scrolling through my smartphone to fall asleep, resulted in weight gain and high blood pressure. It's a vicious cycle of accelerated aging.

Koreans find themselves in an accelerated society, a developed nation that has been compelled to grow faster than its competitors, resulting in an environment where everything in our lives has evolved to be more stimulating. Television dramas surpassed books, then shorter YouTube videos became popular, and now we are in the age of short-form videos. Despite the increased enjoyment, young people globally have experienced heightened levels of depression and anxiety since the advent of smartphones and social media. Over the past 60 years, per capita sugar consumption in South Korea has surged significantly, leading to a rapid increase in the number of young diabetics and cancer patients. It is no longer sufficient to view healthcare merely as another aspect of self-improvement. Accelerated aging is not solely an individual or generational problem; rather, it is a challenge rooted in the accelerated society we inhabit. People must strive to have more disposable time to take care of themselves, enabling them to start families and raise children.

Jung Hee-won, a geriatric physician at Asan Medical Center, graduated from Seoul National University College of Medicine and trained at Seoul National University Hospital. During his med-school days, while practicing the horn, he realized the importance of muscle maintenance and became interested in sarcopenia. His main research interests include frailty, sarcopenia and establishing age-friendly health systems for acute hospitals. This column was originally published in Chosun Ilbo in Korean on Jan. 31, 2024. -- Ed.