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China's Internet Addiction Clinic
An anonymous reader writes "China has decided that if you are spending too much time online, you must be an addict. They've just opened a clinic to treat these internet addicts. Scarier is the head gear they have one patient hooked up to, and the fact that they think that this is some sort of epidemic and will shortly be expanding and adding 200 more beds to their clinics. In my opinion, the internet is way better and safer than alcohol and drugs any day. " We also covered this story last july.
If you think that being online can be addictive then you're less likely to surf around and read things the government doesn't want you reading.
"There are more important things than stopping terrorism. Upholding the Constitution is one of them." - Ars Forumer.
This is what happens when you starve people of both information and their ability to express opinions. It's no different from when people dying of thirst are suddenly given a huge supply of water... they'll drink in dangerously excessive amounts.
You know, that really depends on what you mean by "safe". I'm not arguing the alchohol so much as the smoking pot. You see, net addiction leads to sleep deprivation which is INCREDIBLY unhealthy, often times poor diet decisions and bad hygene and perhaps one of the biggest problems is the social issues it causes.
You see, alchohol and pot tend to be more "social" vices (yeah, you have your closet boozers and potheads, but the vast majority of people use it socially), which has you interacting with people in the flesh versus the net where you interact via a screen.
Physical human face to face contact is something all humans need, and I would worry about the long term mental health consequences of net addiction...especially since I myself have suffered from it.
In my opinion, the internet is way better and safer than alcohol and drugs any day.
Addiction is where any behavior begins to affect how you live your life. I'm addicted to breathing, eating and sleeping, but I can live a normal life doing all of these things. It's when you do something to such an extent that it significantly harms your way of life. I've known people who by most measures were alcoholics. They drank all the time, waking up with a screwdriver, etc. But in the end, they functioned fine in their daily lives. Never lost a job, beat their kids, etc. They just drank a lot.
The same goes for Internet addiction. It's not being on the Internet a lot that's bad. It's when other things suffer for it. When you don't eat, don't sleep, don't socialize, etc, then it's a problem. And ultimately you have to decide if it's a problem for you. I'm on-line a lot myself. I work on-line, I go home, and maybe spend 2 or 3 hours on the average night not on-line, then I'm back on-line again. But in the end, I'm married, I get out and socialize with friends, I eat, I sleep, etc.
As for "healthier". Well sitting in one place all the time, eating junk food and pumping yourself with caffiene is probably not much better for you than drinking a lot, smoking, or doing harder drugs. Arguably more people kill themselves with Internet addiction than say marijuana. I've never heard of somebody dying after a four day streak of getting stoned.
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People get over smoking, drinking, and heroin on their own too. Some people. Others need help.
Recently computers are used in developing dangerous nuclear weapons.
WTF? Steel is also used in developing nuclear weapons. So is plastic and electricity. I should create a blog about the 'negative effects of using steel' I guess?
People are thrown out of their jobs due to the computerization. This has affected the working middle aged persons a lot.
People were thrown out of their jobs due to the invention of the printing press as well.Nowadays computers are misused by lots of people for sharing pornographic materials.
Better ban printed pictures as well. Oh, I guess cave-paintings are dangerous too.
In all seriousness, what is this ragtag group of drivel supposed to mean? I could come up with a simmiar list of the negative effects of useing oxygen.
I have absolutely no data to back this up, but I think that by doing the bulk of my reading on the net, I'm losing something. I think it's because most of the writing on the net is for 12 year olds and under. There are, of course some exceptions. It's the same as watching too much TV as opposed to reading. My spelling is turning to shit as a result too.
That's my $0.25 opppinion.
Evil people don't think they're evil. - George Lucas, Making of Ep III