Slashdot Mirror
Inside A Korean Rehab Camp For Web Addiction
caffeinemessiah writes "The New York Times has a story about a Korean kids' camp for 'curing' Internet addiction. 'Seventeen hours a day online is fine,' said one such kid at the camp. From the article: 'Drill instructors drive young men through military-style obstacle courses, counselors lead group sessions, and there are even therapeutic workshops on pottery and drumming ... this year, the camp held its first two 12-day sessions, with 16 to 18 male participants each time. (South Korean researchers say an overwhelming majority of compulsive computer users are male.)'"
I've cut back to only 4 letters a day now. I'm almost cured!
"Nothing to see here... Please Move Along..."
To your nearest Rehab Camp for Web Addiction
Seventeen hours? Amateur.
you will need to login to see the article.
I fear the Y2038 bug
If all the Koreans are cured of their internet addiction, where will we get our gold farmers? China? They aren't nearly as dedicated! I bet they only get 15 hours of gold farming a day! Sleep they say! Who needs that?
You can either be an extremely powerful wizard ruling your domain with an iron fist or you can make pots and drum. Yes, that's a terrific alternative.
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
addiction is a driving force in humans, you never get rid of addiction you just replace it with something less destructive.... i mean lets face it these kids COULD be addicted to crack instead. i think computers are a pretty healthy outlet for such personalities.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
I'm _meant_ to be on vacation just now. The fact I'm reading this on my laptop in the Hong Kong Central Library, with a trip to Seoul tomorow, is probably some kind of sign. More time in the Big Blue Room required!
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
Those people who become addicted to the internet and spend all of their time online will be less likely to breed. That should eventually lead to an "internet resistant" strain of human being capable of using the internet to accomplish tasks and then walk away.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
Just outsource control of your body to some guy in Timbuktu and wire your head directly the 'net.
Table-ized A.I.
No really.
-- Prepared at the direction of, or to be sent to Legal Counsel, in anticipation of litigation. Attorney Client Pri
When I was young, my parents had a solution for Nintendo and TV addiction.
It was called "playing outside". It worked wonders!
But these days, in Soviet Amerika, toys play with YOU!
What they really need to do is create some sort of VR goggles for all of these kids that put glowing exclamation points above the heads of their parents, bosses and teachers. They'd be the most productive people on the planet.
It wouldn't cost too much, either. Some electronics and a pair of giant, gaudy shoulder pads for each kid. Well worth it.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
ok...I am gonna get flamed.
So here goes.
Addicted to computer games. Games that let you do more than any gov't/religion/philosophy will
ever let you do in "real" life.
I've played many computer games. virutal sex, virtual violence, virtual GOD, virtual CEO, etc, etc.
Did "real" life show me any of these things? FUCK NO!
"real" life taught me I'm nothing. That I would be better dead, or not born at all.
"real" life taught me that being "different" is a fucking shit crime.
"real" life taught me that speaking out against authority is SO evil its called terrorism.
"real" life taught me that people who drink are more powerful than non-drinkers.
Real life is a joke. Real life can kiss my fucking ass.
The computer, aka simulator, aka simulacrum, enables me to do what "real" life would never
let me do.
I have learned that everything is possible outside "real" life.
"real" life is SO limiting. You can't do this without $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Money.
what? oh? SO you are a fucking dictator.
I see.
You can't do this without permission? WHAT THE FUCK? Since when do I need your permission?
Nothing but power games. Some people think freedom is here.
Freedom isn't here. It isn't anywhere.
The prisoners of capitalism, democracy, communism, dictatorships, moderators, religion, etc.
Humans are prisoners of their own BRAIN.
Humans are bred to be authority driven. Its so easy to boss people around. Its not enough funny.
You are addicted to computer games? Oh, so?
Your addicted to "real" life. Your addicted to systems of slavery that have been here for at least 10 thousand years.
Your still addicted to food, air, sex, social gatherings, sleep, etc.
"real" life is slavery.
Games allow you to do what you want. Period.
Good or Evil becomes totally fulfilled.
In "real" life you have to fit in with the society. Be it cannibalism, stupid laws, stupid festivals, stupid mating games, etc.
Do you want to know the next "real" disasters?
Nuclear war is one of them.
Most of California will FALL into the ocean. lol. suckers.
Japan, New York, South Korea : ALL underwater. Gone. Obliterated.
War, Famine, Death, Plague : They will return with vengeance.
I forgot the superbugs. Heh heh. The weak will perish.
you want "real". You got it.
Lets see how you handle "real".
When these disasters become a reality, no one will say "I was right".
No one will be alive. rofl.
You can keep your "real" world.
I'm so glad Washington is on the soviets nuke target list. At least something good will happen.
ahhhh...no more white house. bwah hah hah.
Back to the topic :
addiction to computer games is far superior than addiction to the "real" world.
Freedom cannot be found when the chains of Man hold you down.
Freedom is not found in Man, homosapiens, etc.
Break free of the human brain.
FREEDOM!
Note : You are all slaves of space-time, matter, and this universe.
A prison you can see and taste and hear, yet are blind to it.
You accept this prison as "real".
Grow the fuck up.
Five human senses tell you everything ? Yeah, and ten fingers can hold 10000000000 tons without breaking.
Limited human intellect can tell you everything? Yeah, and I can make money on slashdot. LOL.
Let the flaming begin.
Assuming the ass moderators don't delete everything here. I wouldn't be surprised.
Censorship is rife throughout the world. Including the USA and Canada.
Freedom my ass.
...Korean addiction?.
Table-ized A.I.
Much of the reason Asia is obsessed with MMORPGs is because they provide a form of escape from everything. Students are pressured much harder to succeed there, and failure really isn't tolerated. As a result, children are disinclined to try new things, because they might not be very good at them.
The need for such treatment camps is perhaps symptomatic of this underlying issue - that, life is so dull/boring that a virtual world is far more entertaining. You can take risks their, and noone will think less of you for it. (Noone out of the game, at least)
The only difference from this and going on a true vacation, is on a true vacation you usually are relaxed and get to enjoy life. With the rehab camp, it sounds like you will hate life and yourself. Vacations involve technology such as computers. True vacations may include conveniences, but should contain a void of computers, cell phones, or any other wide-scale communication device. You can have them, but only use them during extremes. Just my thoughts, although I do not feel I have had a true vacation since I was a child, and even then, I spent a lot of time trying to communicate in a global sense...
You have a great point. People might actually listen, if you stop ranting for a second and say your views in a clear, concise manner.
That being said, I don't believe you deserve a negative score. I was forced to stop and think for a second.
Just -1, Troll talking to another.
can anyone find a link to the website of the school itself?
The camps job should be pretty easy. Just provide the internet addicts with girlfriends. I'm completely serious here.
lol nice.
First, I would like to say that i liked your post.
However, while i agree with you about "real" life, I have to ask, computer games? For fuck's sake, 99% of them make you feel good because of a small sensory prize they give you for completing some task. You object to the limitations of the five senses, yet games are the greatest example of such, the fact that most games today try to improve their graphics rather than gameplay signifies my point. I mean, take your average strategy game, a simple set of rules, and the prize is in the form of some pretty graphics of your armies, chess also satisfies that description, is pretty complex and somehow i think it is less popular than most strategy games. I should also say that the "real" life game thingy gives much better sensory prizes (and I heard if you are really good at it you even get that thing they had in "Hot Coffee", but in a much higher resolution). If you want something that's more challenging/deep, well, if you are into computers there's that "game" in "real"-life called "sysadmin", believe me, that's a real challenging one, and you get cool prizes for it too ($$$). I can understand that maybe if you are a speedrunner or one of those guys who play games in order to perfect them, gaming would feel like something very deep, but most of the time it really isn't deep enough to fill an entire life.
Some clever kid is going to figure out a way to get his drum to transmit information to a waiting microphone, that will encode the data and upload it to the internet.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
Seventeen hours a day? What the hell is wrong with that kid? Nobody should have to endure being away from the computer for the remaining seven hours.
We've got a goddamned terrorist here! call the DHS! bash down his doors! take him to Guantanamo and fucking bury him!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
spoken like someone that hasn't gotten head in a while.
As usual with addictions.
... well, it's easier to just stuff those kids into boot camps. No solution, but gives us that fuzzy warm feeling we're "doing something".
Folks, people don't get addicted because it's funny. People don't shoot heroin into their veins because it's such a swell feeling. Neither do people spend 24/7 on the internet because it's their kick.
In either case people get addicted because it's an escape from something. And unless that something is solved, they will eventually end up where they are now. You have to replace that addiction with something sensible. Now, what does that bootcamp offer? Drill sergeants and getting a kick in the nuts? Yeah, that's something I wouldn't wanna escape from.
Now, internet addiction is probably more of a problem than heroin addiction. Especially when it becomes a widespread phenomenon amongst youths. Generally, it means that there's not something wrong with them but with the world around them. My money would be on insane pressure to perform.
But to change that, we'd probably have to change society. And
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You dropped your hat
So here is the deal, we reinsert you in the matrix if you give us the codes of Zion...
... was the first phrase to come to mind from your description of gaming/internet. You complain about how messed up the "real" world is and since you don't like it you choose not to participate in it. It sounds like through your videogames you are completely trying to escape from this society and the "real" world. Unfortunately by not participating you are consenting to the will of the world and lose all of your voice.
My only thought is that maybe you should try and improve the "real" world so that it might be something you could enjoy and future generations can enjoy instead of trying to escape from it with videogames.
http://greenobyl.com/ please.... think of the children!!
These camps are great, see, I've been cured andZZERG!RUSH!!^^KEKEKEKEKEKEEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEEKEKE!!!!!!!!!!!!LoOLDooD!GG!OMGNOOB
Your ideas intregue me. How do I subscribe to your newsletter?
Lets remember the couple of guys who have died after going on an internet bender; for me, its all about balance; sure, I spend a few hours on the internet, but I tend to watch no television, what I do on the internet is reading articles or related to university study.
The problem I think also happens when people use the internet to replace human interaction; like I said, I use the internet for a few hours each day, but watching no internet and social during the day, it balances out eventually.
The question that needs to be asked - is why? why are they addicted to it? it isn't just as simple as "oh, he has an interests" - interests come and go, interests tend to have a finite limit on how long one can do that given interest before wanting to do something else.
Internet addiction tends to be the symptom of a much larger, more complex problem.
I'm so glad Washington is on the soviets nuke target list. At least something good will happen.
Hmmm. A subtly hidden point about the side-effects of complete disconnection, or a sign that this was originally written quite a long time ago? Well, it's no less relevant now...
Wet and shivering, Chang-hoon began climbing the first obstacle, a telephone pole with small metal rungs.
At the top, he slowly stood up, legs quaking, arms outstretched for balance.
Below, the other boys held a safety rope attached to a harness on his chest.
"Do you have anything to tell your mother?" the drill instructor shouted from below.
"No!" he yelled back.
"Tell your mother you love her!" ordered the instructor.
"I love you, my parents!" he replied. You see? The problem these kids have is really that when on the internetz they don't get to climb telephone polls shouting "Mom I love you!".
Riiight.
The problem, once again, is in the fact that kids, as they hit puberty, can't express their feelings of love towards their parents properly.
Not in the fact that it can be hard for a 50 kg teen to keep up with the pressure from peers and parents to be the coolest and best 24/7 IRL, while online they get to be who and what they want in 2 clicks of a mouse.
When these camps are finally allowed to admit that they are failing (sure... they will "cure" some kids... who will switch to other obsessions, some of them much less healthy) - I have a suggestion.
Sex camps!
Hire some pros and give the kids the choice - sex or surf. They will be "cured of the internet" in couple of days tops.
Instructors can still cheer them on and yell "Tell your parent's you love them!" at them.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Wouldn't it be cheaper, and easier, just to get them laid? I mean, don't all the pron downloads go to show that we're only on the internet because we're not getting laid?
Go outside!
no text
Medium cat is MEDIUM.
My names is Chris, and I am an Internet addict...
I'm very much with you on this, his point is pretty much how I feel about life, he's hit the nail on the head for me, but he's too ranty to get that point across without the anger drowning out his point.
That being said, the anger does add a nice "Fuck you world" edge to it no less.
I like muppets.
IF the government decides that the "internet addiction" poses too great risk to the functioning of the society, they will limit the usage and access to the "internet". That may be come in the form of taxes on equipment, making certain activities illegal, criminalizing the "internet cafes". But it is a long way. Did books ever get banned, because they can be addictive too, or movies? The key issue here is, does the addictive activity have big enough negative effect on the productivity of the citizens, or does it have any good effects. It makes me really sad to read that one of the kids said, he became addicted, because his parents were not there for him. He had to spend time alone in his home without nobody to talk to, while his parents were wage-slaving away as hair-dressers and what not. It used to be television that was the old time nanny for kids alone at home. Nowaydays it is the interactive internet games, chatrooms, etc. You mentioned the risk taking aspect. That in "real" life the people who look, or act, out of the "norm" or "take risks" are marginalized. But in the "virtual" world, they can be whatever they like, and take whatever risks, or "look" the way they wish. Well, sooner or later they have to face the real world, when they grow up and have to earn their living. I just hope they can earn their living with the skills they developed in both the real and virtual worlds. IMHO, most often though, the virtual skills have no applications in the real world. Unless they are skills from simulators of real life actions, such as piloting an airplane, or doing surgical operations. Perhaps the government should invest into designing and building these kind of virtual games where the skills rewarded are skills that have real life applications.
I don't agree with everything you say. I think you make a few good points. But you come off as completely nuts the way you write your post. If you want to get your point across to other people than maybe you should calm down and speak rationally. Otherwise, "real life" people are going to think you need the help of a psychiatrist.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
Ok, the headline says "web" addiction, but is that really accurate? The people who are addicted, what do they actually do online?
Read? Watch videos? Listen to music? Play games? Ok, let's say they spend 12 hours a day doing these things.
4 hours reading web sites
2 hours watching videos on Youtube
4 hours playing Counterstrike
2 hours listening to streaming music
Now, let's get rid of the Internet and say they did this instead:
4 hours reading books
2 hours watching a DVD
4 hours playing checkers
2 hours listening to a victrola
Hey, are they "real life" addicted now?
What if I went inside and outside my apartment to do things. Am I now addicted to doors? No, the doors give me a a way to get to places where I can do "stuff" I want/need to do.
Addicted to the Internet? How about "doing things they enjoy/have to do"? The Internet is not the "target". It's what it allows you to do. If all the Internet had was the WWW (nothing but HTTP servers), and they all contained web pages filled with the word "monkey", there would be no "Internet addiction".
It's a means to an end; it is not an end unto itself.
Now, if you want to argue that people are addicted to some individual thing that you just happen to be able to do on the Internet, fine. Game addiction, "chatting" addiction, "reading" addiction, OK. There's a reason it's called "nicotine" addiction and not "cigarette" addiction. Means != ends.
The label is stupid.
The Internet (at least the one before the Eternal September) is such a wonderful place that being not addicted to it is incomprehensive.
Man, you must have gotten really tired of typing
over and over, eh?
Slashdot is a pretty cool guy eh posts dupes and doesn't afraid of anything.
Here's how I look at it:
1. I'm at work for 8 hours a day: staring at a monitor
2. I go to the gym after, which have CRTs staring at you(at least for cardio)
3. I watch my shows after the gym, which is once again in front of the CRT.
I wanna get away from the CRTs. Ugh.
Actually I do. I work on the car in the summertime.
I'm addicted to the web. There are worse things I can addict myself to, and are more addictive than the web, primarily multiplayer FPS games. They tend to make me more aggressive and decrease my ability to concentrate, neither of which make my life "better" on average. Web surfing is better than that, but if I had better ability to control myself, I'd be more happy.
The curse of it is, I'm reasonably adept with computers, and I would say that I'd be more happier using them in work than not using them, being able to do more in less time in non-internet related tasks. And the internet when used correctly can be a massive force multiplier for research.
I've even toyed with making an operating system for people like me. A working title would be "Work-buntu". It would be a fork of Ubuntu, but all access to repositories containing games and other time wasters would be disabled. If there was a browser (which there may not be), it would come with access disabled for most forums including this one. Not sure how. It'd probably remove access to most online communications such as IRC.
As a side benefit, it would probably be very useful in a corporate setting, because it's essentially the same trade-off being made - which applications have the potential to be net-negatives to an organization?
It seems a bit ridiculous, kind of like asking God to create a rock so heavy he can't life, asking a programmer to create an OS he can't subvert somehow with games (and slashdot). But it might work. I've found in the past that if you can create a barricade that delays instant gratification long enough, getting past that barricade starts to look like work... and then you've got a more rational choice between various delayed gratification. e.g.
1) Spend a PITA day installing a new operating system or subverting the existing one, chasing drivers, etc. etc, only to waste the rest of the night and the next day doing things you should be doing already, and will only make you depressed in the long run.
2) Spend the day working, and earn some money so that you feel better about yourself, the resume looks better, you spend some time with your family, and hopefully you can build a life where you can do what you want to do (even just web surfing!) without the constant threat of obligations intruding.
I've found that for someone like myself that addictions are transferable, and I can be equally happy doing anything given enough lead time where I don't feel like I'm bashing my head against a wall. For example, I can be addicted to paid work - it just takes time. But there is a pecking order - and if I allow myself to spend a little time doing something more addictive I will start to do that in preference to the less addictive thing. For myself, the pecking order might be work, sport, reading, surfing the web, games (with FPS most addictive - I won't even let myself near MMORPGs).
Possibly the best solution might be to take up a career without computers altogether. I'm not sure I have that much courage.
If I have seen further it is by stealing the Intellectual Property of giants.
"I can understand that maybe if you are a speedrunner or one of those guys who play games in order to perfect them, gaming would feel like something very deep, but most of the time it really isn't deep enough to fill an entire life."
;-) The possibilities are limited only by one's imagination, enthusiasm, ability and tenacity.
Depends on the game. I've been playing Doom since it's release in 1993, and I could keep going on forever if my body holds up that long, lol! Besides the fact that you can mod just about anything (levels, graphics, sounds, models, etc.) the Doom engine source code is also available... You can literally turn Doom into anything you want or anything you like into Doom.
I picked Doom because it's kinda old and is a good counter-example of the 'mo graphix = better game meme that's been going on for the past decade or so. I also picked Doom because it's the first computer game that enthralled me so much that I preferred to spend hours playing it instead of participating in lame "approved" social gatherings (that mostly involve getting drunk and/or stupid).
And when Doom gets boring or I need a change of pace, there are many other games, even beyond the computer (think: tabletop RPGs) where you can really let your imagination fly and go far, far beyond the prison of the real.
Unfortunately, the virtual world is presently controlled by the system. In essence, it's all dictated by what people want in "real life", and staying in a video game will only cause you to end up following the pack. If the cattle don't all come to graze at your virtual community of choice, it will all dry up, just like that, leaving you to follow them or lose your pasture. They make the rules, and any small respite from their tyranny will be wrested from your grasp in due time. There is no escape. If you want to defeat the system, you have to keep trying to win hearts and minds away from them, try to convince the cattle to flee from the system with you. And even if you win the majority, through some miracle, they'll happily betray the freedom you captured to form a new system all their own.
Fighting the system outright is worthless. Ignoring the system is to become its pawn. There are only two options, the first of which is to put an end to yourself. The system can't get you there. The other option is to undermine the system. Help code a temporary refuge in the net. Find the backdoors and exploits in the system's infrastructure. Write stories, poems, or lyrics to help awaken those stuck within the system. Find the like-minded people and speak with them. We can't beat the system, and I think you know that. But we can fight it, as long as there are those willing to help in the fight. We can get through it, and build a better future for ourselves, just a step outside of the system's grasp.
Gamertag: WyleType
So when playing Counter Strike over drums, an especially skilled player would manage to score many... "rimshots"?
*headshot*
People generally _start_ heroin because it feels good, or their friends tell them it's cool, or because they're stressed and it helps the stress, or because they're also using cocaine and it helps the jitters. But it doesn't take long at all to get addicted. An aquaintance of mine who was a writer found that the relaxation helped him with writers' block and also with coke jitters (coke also helped with writers' block), but once he used it for four days in a row and got addicted. It took him a long time to get off the stuff; he said it was far nastier than getting off coke had been (which had been pretty easy once he'd burned through all his money and friends....) Last time I saw him he still smoked cigarettes, but his girlfriend said she could cope with that, and they'd work on once vice at a time.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks