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Tony_Balony
Joined: 12 Apr 2007
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 Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 4:31 pm Post subject: In Korea, a Boot Camp Cure for Web Obsession |
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This sounds like a good idea and not just for them either.
In Korea, a Boot Camp Cure for Web Obsession
Seokyong Lee for The New York Times
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By MARTIN FACKLER
Published: November 18, 2007
MOKCHEON, South Korea — The compound — part boot camp, part rehab center — resembles programs around the world for troubled youths. Drill instructors drive young men through military-style obstacle courses, counselors lead group sessions, and there are even therapeutic workshops on pottery and drumming.
Lee Chang-hoon, 15, runs an obstacle course at the Jump Up Internet Rescue School. He spent almost all of his time online before his mother sent him to the camp. “Seventeen hours a day online is fine,” he said at the camp. More Photos �
But these young people are not battling alcohol or drugs. Rather, they have severe cases of what many in this country believe is a new and potentially deadly addiction: cyberspace.
They come here, to the Jump Up Internet Rescue School, the first camp of its kind in South Korea and possibly the world, to be cured.
South Korea boasts of being the most wired nation on earth. In fact, perhaps no other country has so fully embraced the Internet. Ninety percent of homes connect to cheap, high-speed broadband, online gaming is a professional sport, and social life for the young revolves around the “PC bang,” dim Internet parlors that sit on practically every street corner.
But such ready access to the Web has come at a price as legions of obsessed users find that they cannot tear themselves away from their computer screens.
Compulsive Internet use has been identified as a mental health issue in other countries, including the United States. However, it may be a particularly acute problem in South Korea because of the country’s nearly universal Internet access.
It has become a national issue here in recent years, as users started dropping dead from exhaustion after playing online games for days on end. A growing number of students have skipped school to stay online, shockingly self-destructive behavior in this intensely competitive society.
Up to 30 percent of South Koreans under 18, or about 2.4 million people, are at risk of Internet addiction, said Ahn Dong-hyun, a child psychiatrist at Hanyang University in Seoul who just completed a three-year government-financed survey of the problem.
They spend at least two hours a day online, usually playing games or chatting. Of those, up to a quarter million probably show signs of actual addiction, like an inability to stop themselves from using computers, rising levels of tolerance that drive them to seek ever longer sessions online, and withdrawal symptoms like anger and craving when prevented from logging on.
To address the problem, the government has built a network of 140 Internet-addiction counseling centers, in addition to treatment programs at almost 100 hospitals and, most recently, the Internet Rescue camp, which started this summer. Researchers have developed a checklist for diagnosing the addiction and determining its severity, the K-Scale. (The K is for Korea.)
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/technology/18rehab.html?hp |
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Milwaukiedave
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong
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| Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 4:36 pm Post subject: |
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TB,
Good article. It sounds like something I should go to. I'm not on the net 17 hours a day, but even the 6-8 hours (somedays) I spend on the net it way too much. Yes, it can be very addicting. |
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Yaya
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 5:49 pm Post subject: |
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| I have a Web-based business I'm running, but yeah, I agree that too much time spent online is definitely not good. All that sitting ain't good for anyone. |
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Been There, Taught That
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Location: Mungyeong: not a village, not yet a metroplex.
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| Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 3:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Another example of "why'd they wait so long to do it?"l |
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lowpo
Joined: 01 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 5:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Been There, Taught That wrote: |
| Another example of "why'd they wait so long to do it?"l |
This is the second country that has started a boot camp for kids who have a Web Obsession.
China started a camp for kids with Web Obsession last year. |
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