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    [OC] I tried to digitally detox in Seoul’s most famous park… and found 147 government WiFi hotspots in 3 km
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    [OC] I tried to digitally detox in Seoul’s most famous park… and found 147 government WiFi hotspots in 3 km

    Seoul consumes over 52TB of public data daily (as of 2021). It is a hyper-connected city where the government provides free WiFi even in outdoor parks.

    I went to Yeouido Hangang Park to escape my phone, but my signal was full bars everywhere. It felt like an open-air internet cafe.

    The Analysis (Proxy Data): As a data analyst, I visualized the density of Public WiFi Access Points (APs) not to find the best connection, but as a proxy for crowds.

    • Why this works: In the city center, private WiFi (cafes, offices) dilutes the data. But in Hangang Park, there are no commercial buildings. Public WiFi is practically the only infrastructure, installed exactly where the city expects people to gather.

    The Map Reveals:

    • Red/Yellow Zones (The Noise): Near Yeouinaru Station & Delivery Pickup Zones. These are optimized for streaming and ordering food. (Crowded)
    • White/Empty Zones (The Silence): The western riverbank and deep ecological areas. These are the only spots where the city didn't bother to install WiFi.

    Key Stats:

    • Total APs: 147 (Filtered for Yeouido Park)
    • Grid Size: ~120m per hexagon

    Tools: Python (GeoPandas, Matplotlib, Contextily) Data: Seoul Open Data Plaza (Dec 2025)

    I’ve uploaded the code and cleaned dataset to Google Sheets if you want to find a detox spot in your city:(Raw Data)

    Posted by SeaworthinessAny8634

    View 12 Comments

    12 Comments

    2. DeKing2212 on

      What’s wrong with your phone having full bars? If you don’t want interruptions just turn on airplane mode or do not disturb

    3. gl_fh on

      Its interesting, but turning your phone off is probably more reliable than trying to find a deadzone.

    4. soju053 on

      “Most connected” country in the world. Makes sense. I was at the top of a mountain in Korea and still had full signal. Both cellular and WiFi. I don’t think there are many places left to do a total digital detox in that country.

    5. Logisticman232 on

      You were going to digitally detox in one of the most densely populated cities in the world?

    6. 5_dollars_hotnready on

      You tried to disconnect and tracked WiFi spots the whole time? Just turn off your phone lmao.

    7. marcus474 on

      That’s like an alcoholic trying to not drink by mapping every bar around them… What a strange opening statement.

    8. LumpyJones on

      Went to digital detox and instead of just turning off your data/cell you obsessively gathered digital data.

    9. Novemberai on

      Funny how escaping digital saturation required a full data-engineering project that ends up looking suspiciously like an OSINT brief on municipal infrastructure.

      r/OSINT I’m sure would appreciate this

    10. underlander on

      Why did you use ChatGPT to write your summary if you’re trying to do a “digital detox”

    11. zuniyi1 on

      This area here, Yeoido, is the financial, commercial, political, and media capital of Korea. I struggle to think of a single place here that would be more digitally connected in our nation.