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Net Addiction Gets Finnish Soldiers Out Of Army
nerdb0t writes "Reuters is reporting that the Finnish Defense Forces have allowed some men to be excused from military service because of 'Internet Addiction.' The service period is 6 months - but that's too long away from the internet for these guys. Is this a joke? Is this a legitimate illness? Hm..where can I apply for disability..."
apparent b/c i got first post.. i must be addicted to the net or at least slash dot
http://brandonbloom.name
"If I can't get my daily dose of slashdot, I'll go crazy and kill some endangered animals" - Finnish soldier
www.google.com
Actually, they were not excused from military service, they were sent home and told to grow up and return in a few years for another try.
Seems to me six months on duty, away from the Internet, just might be the cure for this terrible illness.
About two years ago I spent 2 months as a counselor at a summer camp, most of which time I had no internet access, and when I did have access it was minimal. I know this is a little pathetic, but I really felt like I was being deprived. I mean, I wasn't sick over it or anything, but it was something I genuinely missed and I was really bothered that I couldn't use it the way I was used to. That said, I don't really think that this is a legitimate sickness worthy of being discharged because of, it's really quite managable. The main way I dealt with it was reading a lot. Generally I don't read that often, but that summer I went through a few tens of books.
They don't get pardoned forever. It seems they got 'E' which means 'go home and grow a little'. So they need to come back and do their service 2-3 years later.
For record you can get 'E' just by requesting it, these guys were forced to 'E' due to addiction =)
(status of different letters in Finnish Defence Forces:
A - primary letter given to everyone, capable of active service
B - Some problem, maybe bad allergy or old injury
C - No service during peace time
D - No service (even if it's war time)
E - Service postponed )
Recall that about half the country is above the arctic circle, so cell phnes and computers are great when you can hop a reindeer to visit the next village over. They probably have more net addicts than Korea, since the Internet is an easy to stay in contact with people when it's -20 out.
They also have one of the highest rates of alchoholisim in Europe, and I wonder how many people get waivers for that each year.
But really, what self-respecting Army would pass on a soldier because he spent too much time practicing his BFG9000 skills...
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
This is ridiculous. Unfortunately, the story is true. What's ridiculous is that the service doesn't mean 6 months of no net -- it just means you can't get on the net _as much as you might want to_. First, the Finnish army gives you three out of four weekends off, which means you get to go home (=on the net if you just have to get your fix) for the weekend and report back on Sunday evening. Second, most if not all garrisons have computers with Internet-connections that the conscripts can freely use during the evenings. And if you still can't handle it? Growing up is exactly what you need.
Military service is mandatory in Finland, and min. service time is 180 days, max. 362 days. You can also carry out the service as civil service (395 days) and in some cases as unarmed military service (330 days if I remember correctly).
www.mil.fi
Those that refuse to enter even civil service can be sentenced to (usually a minimum security) prison for 197 days (max.).
You know, if Linus Torvalds can do it (He served in the Finnish army too, remember!) then any computer addict can. Suck it up and get a technical position, solider!
The Yasashii Syndicate ||
The purpose of the Finnish army is to defend Finland. It's purpose is not to psychologically damage its recruits.
...and it has been happening for few years.
It's really not just their addiction that excuses them from serving their country.
I think the main reason is their lack of interest and ofcourse they are in a such a bad shape that it's impossible to manage the armyduties.
I mean that if you sit in front of your computer for 12 hours a day and then you suddenly have to wear 30-40 kilos backpack and told to march 10 kilometres.
/* If everybody would be like me the world would be much better place to be - at least in my mind. */
The Finnish army practices lying in the snow, waiting for enemies to take out with one shot of the rifle.
:)
If you want winter experience, learn from Finnish, Norwegian or Swedish soldiers.
When I served my time in the Army, in Harstad, Norway (look it up)in jan-jul '97 there was a snowfall record. 2,5-3 meters of snow in valleys and -15 to -35 Celsius was the norm.
Advantages: You learn to handle extreme cold. It's easy to dig trenches and to camouflage the tent.
Disadvantages: It's bloody cold. When you've had your 4 hours of sleep inbetween watches, the uniform is not frozen anymore, but it's still damp/wet. When you get outside everything turns to ice.
Super-duper-advantage: During watches I got to see the Hale-Bopp comet at night, in perfect sky conditions. With night vision goggles too, that was incredible (and quite green/white). I missed an attack on the base though, the enemy got first strike there...
We take .75 Million years to move from the open veldt, to skin tents, mud-thatch huts, and finally stucco condos with AC.
Who are these wiseacres who want to ignore this struggle, and revisit the "great" outdoors? Why don't y'all starve a bear, and stay in here - where the lights are on? There's a Red Bull in the 'fridge!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Some might argue that military service IS a treatment program of sorts...
The Finnish performance in WW2 was mainly due to four factors. One, Stalin didn't send enough troops to the Finnish front so the Finnish army wasn't completely overrun. Two, the winter '39-'40 was very cold, even by Finnish standards, so the Soviet mechanical advantage was lost. Three, the Finnish army was very good in the use of artillery. Four, defending your homeland gives you some extra boost compared to simply invading some other country. I don't think that the "quality of the soldiers" was that much different.
:)
However, the recent studies have shown that most young Finnish people would jump to the arms if Finland were invaded, so I don't think this net addiction thing has any effect on that
The question is, should this 'addiction' be treated in the first place?
On one hand I think claiming to be 'internet addicted' to the extent that you cannot cope without the internet is a joke.
On the other I would consider myself to have a dependancy on the internet which could be classed as a mild addiction - I begin to feel like a part of me is missing when I need to spend a prolonged time away from the Internet.
I imagine the main reason I am so dependant on the Internet is convenient access to informaion. If I stumble accross anything I don't understand, or something I would like to know more about, I can obtain a wealth of information and endless user opinions after a few google queries.
When I am at a computer, I almost consider it to be an extension of my brain. Whilst my own brain keeps a record of personal memories and knowledge, the Internet lets me augment my own experiences and knowledge with that of other people.
Spending most of my life with access to the internet at my fingertips, I have got used to (and to a certain extend dependant on) the ability to instantly recall any phone number someone gave me 12 years ago. Or the ability to consult thousands of experts in any specialised field and receive a response within a few seconds. Or the ability to instantly share my experiences and discoveries with others who may find it interesting/useful. When that access isn't possible, is it that surprising that I feel as if something is missing?
Is thirst for knowledge really an addiction that should be treated like a mental illness and cured?
Just like to address few things.
:).
Any serious military attempt to seize Finland would be noticed 2-6 months before the attack could be made. It is just not possible to move all needed manpower and equipment for attack to Finland to the border without anyone noticing, and if you close your borders, its kinda clear message. This means that army has decent time to mobilize and give some extra training. Of course all bridges, roads and such could be mined before any attempt to take them could be made. In example, all finnish bridges and tunnels have holes in their concrete structure, where the explosives will be placed in case they need to be destroyed. I have even heard that there is book which contains all information about all bridges, their locations and amount of explosives needed for their destruction.
Our soldiers in peacekeeping missions get only 1-2 months of extra training before going to peacekeeping missions.
Of course it is possible to make surprise (finnish air defence would have ~20 minutes to react) attack with airforce only without any warning. But still, ground attack would be months away.
And about those pesky IR-thingies. do you people understand that they have very limited capability in forests. IR can be used to see in dark yes, but you can't see through things, such as forest. Thermal imaging can help with that, but mostly, thermal imaging equipment good enough to penetrate thick forest is in satellites, and in some recon planes and finland is very big country to sweep through constantly and accurately enough, to make any diffirence. When ever Finnish forces would be concentrated enough(like counter-attack) to use air force against them effectively, finnish forces would of course use their own air force and SAM power to counter enemy air superiority for small time period, so finnish forces can make their maneuver without full air power in their neck.
And in the end, i'd like to remind that Finland has much more modern air defences that of serbs or iraq. Especially in southern Finland where the BUK M1 units are situated.
And there is even more, i'd much more compare finnish situation to soviet vs. afgans than serbs or iraqis. Afgans were able to fight off soviet air attack with only stingers. While the terrain in Afganistan is very much diffirent than in Finland, when thinking about war, they give the same obstacles, just in diffirent form. I'd even say that when thinking of air defence, Finland is better country to defend than Afganistan. There is no better place to ambush air forces than country with lots of forests and modern air defence systems like BUK M1, Crotale NG and Igla.
What comes to alcoholism, yeah, military personnel drinks like any other worker class dude here. Mostly the stories what i heard in army were urban legends, totally incorrect or just greatly exaggarated. Even my father had heard few of the same stories that go around nowadays, and he was in finnish army 1952. If you ask about the stories from someone who has been in army, lets say 1980 you probably get even more same stories
And final part of my long post. I don't know if you have read the studies, but fins have one the highest ratings when they question the citizens will to defence their country against foreign invasion'. Me and most of my friends are ready to take arms if Finland is invaded. I have no will whatsoever to take arms to attack anywhere, or to fight in any other theater than Finland.
So, i'm not forced against my will to defend my own country, my friends aren't, and i think most of fins aren't. Even most of those people who didn't like army and hated it because they though there wouldn't be war (waste of time) would be ready to take arm once they noticed that Finland is under attack. There is small portion of people who don't like to use arms, i accept their choice. There is small portion of people who would be there against their will to defend their country. But so small that they probably wouldn't have any serious input in war anyway, they can always serve elsewhere than in flashpoints.
But mostly, above all, there would be determined finnish army with intention to fight off any invader.
In one of the local neswpapers is a story about this, it say that the biggest reason is the very different life-rhytm. It's about a marginal group of yong men who havn't had anyone controlling their habits, they haven't been woken up at 6:00 and nobody has ordered them to do anything, they have been living without any limitations. When suddenly all this is true, they can't handle it. Net addiction is not a disease as such, but the other symptoms are, and they vary; panic disturbances, pressure handling problems and other psychological factors. These guys only have online friends and suddenly living in the same room with 10 other farting people is too much for them.
They go on to say that these people are examined later (1-3 years), and that most of them are rid of the addicion at that point and then they can continue their service. About 80% finish their military service.
-- [Partly (shamelessly) quoted and freely translated from "Iltalehti" http://www.iltalehti.fi ]
No sig. Go away.
Yeah, really. At one point in my life I was 'addicted' to sleeping past noon and staying out all night having fun. Then I graduated and got a job. I had to go cold turkey -- man that was a bitch.
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.