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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.
Story is a dupe...original story can be found here.
I'm not complaining, mind you...the original story garnered a scant 31 comments, so I'm glad to see it posted again. I'm especially glad to see the pic of the bizzare headgear composed of equal parts ignition wiring and surgical tubing...I have a new wallpaper!
Seriously, though, from TFA: I went through the same thing during my big MUD/MUSH phase back in the early 90's...14+ hours online every day of the week, and I was losing weight because I was forgetting to eat. But you know what? Somehow, I survived, and I didn't need some scary nurse wrapping my head in neo-bondage gear to do it. This 'clinic' is selling digital snake oil...nothing more.
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
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.
what is scary is the liklihood that drug companies will find a pill to cure you of the addiction to the Internet. All they have to do is find a compound that not only makes you not want to surf the Internet, but also has viagra side effects. Yes, scary, but then the *AA will be supporting it too because you won't want to download illegal copies of stuff. With a market the size of China, what drug company can resist the lure of selling 2 pills per day to half a billion people?
Yes, I think the fears of certain science fiction writers were well founded.
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Back when I was traveling through Brugge, Belgium in 1994 I met a couple who counseled those addicted to BBS's. I imagine they are quite busy still.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I spent ages trying to think of sig, but never did
> They've just opened a clinic...
> We also covered this story last july.
So have they just opened the clinic or not?
Cool...do they have a website? how 'bout an RSS feed?
In my opinion, the internet is way better and safer than alcohol and drugs any day.
You couldn't be more wrong. Alcohol and drugs suppress your higher brain functions, as well as your desire to do anything but get more alcohol and drugs. Properly managed, you will continue to be a loyal servant of the state, since we produce the alcohol and tolerate the drugs.
Excessive use of the Internet, on the other hand, could lead to independent thought, social instability, and rebellion.
Please report to Minitrue immediately.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
If your spending so much time on the internet, that you end up not eating, losing your job, or failing out of school, then it is a problem that should probably be addressed. Most of the stuff on the internet is just a big waste of time. It's probably one of the hardest addictions to kick too. There's very little money required to spend every hour of your life online, not to mention that nobody (meaning the cops) really tries to stop you from spending your entire life online. Also, it's possible to get to a point where you're really addicted, without anyone else noticing.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Because they learn from their mistakes and adapt. China *was* the asian superpower before the West destroyed them by addicting them to opium. Looks like they aren't going to let that happen again... time to print out a certain 38-dimensional figure?
Granted, most people don't go out killing folks on account of the internet (with some exceptions of course), but an "addiction" to the internet can be extremely damaging nonetheless. Whilst I was in HS I saw my grades drop from straight A's to C's and D's because I was online so much I didn't do any homework or studying. So basically I had no social life (unless you count chat rooms and the like) and wasn't very productive at all. Of course, I managed to beat my own addiction by just setting limits when I actually went to college, and I graduated Salutatorian and got married. I obviously agree that Internet addiction is real, and I can realt personally to Wang Yiming in TFA. I don't really think you need a clinic though, but maybe.
/.'ers suffer similar addictions to the internet. Just my two cents.
Addiction that stems from the mind, and not drugs, is a real thing. I had a college professor who was addicted to running and the "high" it gave him. It got to the point of being unhealthy. Right now, I'm only mildly skeptical of the clinic, but from TFA it doesn't seem that China is "Forcing" people to go, so if a person feels they should voluntarily submit themselves to treatment then I say more power to them. Recognizing an addiction is really the first step. I'm sure, just because this is China, that people will react strongly to it, but I'd wager that at least a few
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
If they want something to worry about, they should consider smoking. China must have the highest smoking ratio outside of a Huntingdon Beagle Lab.
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I don't know if it's safe than drugs and booze... to yourself at least. I've had a lot of good times with drugs and booze, and I don't feel any the less for it. As long as you aren't driving, more power to you. Same goes for being online all day, more power to you, but there was a point in my life when I couldn't stand straight, my neck was always cricked, I got fat, my sleeping schedule was completely fucked, and I didn't have a social life at all. I really do believe it hurt me a lot more than booze and alcohol ever did.
LS
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
In my opinion, the internet is way better and safer than alcohol and drugs any day.
I dunno about you, dude, but I've know people who have spend hours and hours of their time online because of their net addiction, often going to bed at 4:00 AM because they're so busy IMing. I've had friends fail out of school and lose their jobs because of this. I've never had a friend of mine lose their job because they smoked pot; even the most pot-addicted of them (and trust me, I know a few) are reasonably functional, and probably healthier than those people who stay up until 4:00 eating junk food and then getting little sleep and complaining about their "insomnia".
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.
But drink and drugs can be a lot more fun and can involve bumping into real life horny drunken girlies and having even more fun.
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.
I went through the same thing during my big MUD/MUSH phase back in the early 90's...14+ hours online every day of the week, and I was losing weight because I was forgetting to eat. But you know what? Somehow, I survived, and I didn't need some scary nurse wrapping my head in neo-bondage gear to do it. This 'clinic' is selling digital snake oil...nothing more.
But then surely you admit that there is such a thing as Internet addiction, and that it can really mess up a person's life for a while. If it can be treated in some reasonable and effective way (which this clinic surely is not), then isn't such treatment a good idea?
It's not really useful to say 'Well hey, I got over it... so you addicts should just snap out of it!'
Of course, this kind of obsessive behavior is really new. But the Internet really does seem to have great potential to draw people into it. After all, in the days long before D&D and the Internet, you didn't see fantasy geeks spending 14 hours every day re-reading "Ivanhoe" or whatever.
The challenge is that the Internet is always available, and always ready to interact. It's like having a TV channel that always shows new episodes of your favorite progam. I'm glad that I don't have a problem with it, but I sympathize with those who do.
In my opinion, the internet is way better and safer than alcohol and drugs any day
But alcohol and drugs don't expose you to the concept of freedom and independance. What they're really trying to stop is the influx of such ideas.
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.
China's Psychiatric Terror
At its triennial congress in Yokohama last September, the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) overwhelmingly voted to send a delegation to China to investigate charges that dissidents were being imprisoned and maltreated as "political maniacs" both in regular mental hospitals and in police-run psychiatric custodial institutions known as the Ankang. (The word literally means "Peace and Health.")
The psychiatrists who staff these institutions, Dangerous Minds shows, tend to assume that their patients are mad because of their political beliefs or actions. The diagnoses made in both the political dissident and Falun Gong cases, ranging from "delusions of reform" to "paranoid psychosis," are highly reminiscent of the long-discredited label of "sluggish schizophrenia" that the Soviets used to apply to their dissidents and religious nonconformists.
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.
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.
:)
Indeed. I can't imagine too many people on a four-day weed bender forgetting to eat, for instance
The lack of social contact and prolonged solitude has a profound effect on the mentality of the hikikomori, who gradually lose their social skills and the necessary social references and mores of the outside world. Anguished about their isolation and acutely self aware of their problem, they immerse themselves into the fantasy worlds of manga, television or computer games, which in turn becomes their only frame of reference. As time passes, the hikikomori, lacking interpersonal stimulus, developmentally stagnates into routine behaviors of sleeping all day and staying up all night only to sneak out into the kitchen for food when the family is asleep. Eventually, hikikomori may abandon their diversions of books and TV and simply stare into space for hours at a time. -- Wikipedia, "hikikomori"
It's such a big problem in Japan that the birth rate has dropped substantially.
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
I was addicted to MUDs, too. Currently I'm addicted to XBox. Just because (before I got another job) I spent 12-18 hours straight on the computer or with a controller in my hands doesn't mean I forgot to eat or sleep. Now I didn't eat well, just some Ramen, Mountain Dew, and who knows what other junk, but I did force some things into my stomach. And sleep eventually takes care of itself. Though the random characters from a face impacting the keyboard can have a negative effect on your gameplay ... :)
Xbox reviews.. We think they're funny.
Whilst I was in HS I saw my grades drop from straight A's to C's and D's because I was online so much I didn't do any homework or studying. So basically I had no social life (unless you count chat rooms and the like) and wasn't very productive at all.
Idle curiosity: where were your parents/guardians while this was happening? Why wasn't anyone guiding you during your formative years? This is a bigger looming problem than the perils of [alleged] "Internet addiction".
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
You say that like it's a *bad* thing.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Is it only me here seeing a more-than-slight resemblence between this and this?
The headgear looks pretty cool... is it some kind of new game interface? Where do I get it?
Totalitarian countries- which China aspires to, although they cannot achieve it at the moment- have historically used mental health as a way to subjugate and control dissidents. No stalinist or maoist show trial was complete without a learned doctor explaining that the defendant was almost certainly crazy (and if they weren't, they probably would be by the time the train got back from Siberia). Mental health hospitals were used as prisons for a special class of criminal- those who committed thoughtcrime. These "clinics" are nothing more than an extension of this totalitarian approach.
It's not surprising that China is undergoing an internal struggle over how to handle the internet- the net is the most obvious disease vector for thoughtcrime there could be. It's also the key to unlocking China's economic potential, allowing much simpler commercial integration with the rest of the world. It's hard for the authorities to keep a lid on it- no matter how much companies like google, cisco, and yahoo willingly participate in selling freedom down the river.
I suspect that this is intended to be a warning to dissidents- 200 beds in China won't be terribly effective- and perhaps a symbol for the other members of the politburo as to how sincere their sponsor is in his willingness to crush dissent, particularly people who dare to post anything of significance on their blogs.
These guys don't play games, they kill people.
What a strange bird is the pelican, his beak can hold more than his belly can.
I doubt the existence of this clinic. I've noticed that all these "internet addiction" or "man plays online for days straight and dies" stories come out in regular intervals and only from Asian countries. If anything, I would say that these stories are fabricated by the governments of said countries and picked up as fact by other news agencies.
It's just propaganda, nothing more. Look at the headgear that guy's got on. What purpose could it possibly serve in curing "internet addiction"? Methinks the story and the pictures serve to scare the populace from excessive computer use (assuming they actually take these stories seriously).