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Outside Beijing, a Military-style Bootcamp For "Internet Addiction"
Press2ToContinue writes Last year, China recognized internet addiction as an official disorder. Since then, over 6,000 patients have submitted themselves for treatment, after some spent up to 14 hours a day online. And as these amazing pictures show, dealing with it is serious. The Daxing Internet Addiction Treatment Centre (IATC) is a military-style bootcamp nestled in the suburbs of Bejing. The young men that enter its doors are subjected to a strict military regime of exercise, medication and solitary confinement. Any kind of electronic gadgetry is completely banned. Additionally, patients are frequently subjected to psychiatric assessments and brain scans to make sure they stay on the straight and narrow. And the concept is gaining steam; the first Internet Congress on Internet Addiction Disorders was held in Milan in early 2014. Despite its recent official classification, Is internet addiction a real disorder? Or is it a red herring masking depression and escapism? And to make things more indeterminate, Isn't more and more time online the inevitable future?
There's a lot to escape and be depressed about.
"Internet" addiction is scapegoating the medium.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Back in the day when I was a pupil I had "library addiction" for several years. I spent most of my free time in the library reading books. I event took a lot of books with me to read somewhere else. It was a fascinating experience with all the knowledge in there. Nobody in their right mind would have thought it was a problem. This "Internet addiction" is not different in any way I can see.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Yes. Any activity performed in such a way that it inhibits a person or makes them unhappy can become a disorder, a very real disorder. The exact behaviour is not relevant. It could be counting your steps - people do it obssessively and it gets in the way of their lives and makes their lives difficult - then its a disorder.
2. Or is it a red herring masking depression and escapism?
It can be. It can also be an OCD of its own.
3. And to make things more indeterminate, Isn't more and more time online the inevitable future?
Depends on how you determine "the online". If your fridge is phoning home every time you open the freezer, then you are online, but you don't notice. You drive down the street and your cellphone is tracking your moves and phoning home. You are online. Gluing yourself to a chair to spend all day on Facebook is not the only way to be online, so while "more online time" may seem inevitable, how it is expressed in social practice is something else altogether.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Because I would have been executed a long ago as a serious repeated offender...
that's what the Chinese are "protecting their ill citizens" from. the name on the top of the form changes, but it's always "you don't believe our crap, so you are nuts."
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
What? You don't say, teenagers don't willingly and joyfully trade online gaming for being subjected to idiots in a bootcamp?
Anyone thinking that any of those people are there willingly should probably think again.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Yes, I actually thought this would be the greatest weight loss game kind of system ever - "gain weight lose your Internet connection"
But no, the target customers thought removing the Internet connection or television was not a funny game at all.
instead it would be so "terrible",... and customers would happen to be forced to "disable", "remove", "destroy" etc. the thing..., because they don't need a baby sitter... because they are so damn good in losing weight. Maybe, China is arranging some kind of holiday camps to its food addicts too?
We give kindergardeners smartphones and tablets as the new babysitter while convincing ourselves that this will make them more competitive with the foreigners. Obviously, it MUST be the smartphones/tablets which make them better at math and science...
I spend 12 hours a day or more on the computer, (work + hobbies) but it's a relief to go up to the mountains for a few days and not have anything around.
Addicted? Maybe.
"Isn't more and more time online the inevitable future?"
I believe it is, however I believe that it will become more "transparent", we will be online but the way we do it will not keep us in one area, nor involve the use of a large gadget.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
They are all "diet privates".
(I have asked my sister to share my story with you, I no longer use the internet.)
When the ambulance arrived I could barely move. Lying on the floor in my own excrement, spasms jerking my body this way and that, I was not well. Not well.
The doctors determined that I was near starvation and dehydrated. They filled me with fluids. But none of that explained why I was dehydrated. My dear sister had a hunch that was confirmed by the psychologist at the hospital. They conspired with others to put me in this place.
I'm not sure exactly where I am, but I am sure that I can't find it on a Google map. They don't allow me to use computers. They said I had Internet Addiction. I think it's been around 3 weeks now. The drugs, food and kind people have been a help. I feel better. I don't know when, if ever, it will be safe for me to use a computer again.
I used to love slashdot. All you witty people who care about much more than just programming. I know you're there but I may never share your wonderful insights. Because I care so much I want to urge you to get help. Get tested. Don't let what happened to me happen to you.
Just a moment. What do you mean? It can't be! These damn drugs... Sorry people, I thought it was April first.
...omphaloskepsis often...
I'm sure the ChiComs have many behaviors they consider a "disorder" and can get you a one way ticket to the re-education camps.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
There is a fine documentary on this subject called "China's Web Junkies".
All the young lads (they are all midteens) are put in these boot camps by their parents at great expense. They are not government re-education camps, there is no political angle to these kid's problems. Nor are they hackers of any kind.
The main point to realise is that they are not addicted to the internet as such but to online gaming in particular. And they really do seem to be addicts. Their bragging about regularly playing for 24 or 36 hours straight might seem to be exaggerated but when some of them escape during the film they are quickly recaptured... at the nearest internet cafe.
Was much more useful to mankind because it came with a Basic interpreter waiting for the kid in front of it. Plus a real keyboard. You could write a small program to calculate your math and physics homework and thereby learn a useful skill for your adult life. You could enlighten yourself to the utility of computers for mankind.
Compare that to the android crap, which is made for consumption, not for creation.
Anything with a rewarding stimulus can become an addiction. But only a in a subgroup of people whose brains seriously screw up and over-react to the positive stimulus. It's more of an addiction spectrum than a switch, but there are people who are genuinely addicted to the internet (or online games, since the internet is really too broad a category; cue stories about Koreans playing until they die).
I don't know whether or not most people who go to this camp are seriously addicted. I'm sure there are a few, but all I know is that someone is making money off of this.
Who are "YOU FOLKS"? Do you know which nationality sydocon is? Does he own a horse and go Yeehaw! while roping cattle?
And just what the fuck does any of that have to do with Chinese government abuses of its population?
Humans do need a serious amount of social interaction or they eventually become sick.
That's why Internet porns are so popular.
Stating that the "concept is gaining steam" immediately after mentioning how these people are being abused, is either purposely misleading, or poor editing. I'm not a grammar Nazi, but please stop with the click-bait, or you'll be losing more readers.
Just another day in Paradise
It just that these are played in computer cafes rather than at home.
Heavy veido game use is an issue for some young men in the USA.
The way the word "addiction" is thrown around debases its meaning. What is being talked about in most cases - shopping addiction, computer addiction, sex addiction, cocaine addiction - is really compulsive behavior. And what ends up happening, in practice, because of this, is that actual addiction, (such as to opiates), is treated the same as compulsive behavior. Or rather, vice-versa. The Chinese, at least, are appropriately treating this compulsive behavior with behavior modification.
I think it would benefit everybody to distinguish these two very different problems.
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped