In Korea, a Boot Camp Cure for Web Obsession By Martin Fackler
Published: November 18, 2007
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.
...“I don’t have a problem,” Chang-hoon said in an interview three days after starting the camp. “Seventeen hours a day online is fine.”
I wonder how long it will take for this to reach the States?
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2 comments:
Whenever I read about - or observe - compulsive internet use, I can't help but think how - 10 or 12 years ago - the internet was seen as a panacea for practically social ill imaginable, how the "information superhighway" was going to raise the intellectual bar by increasing awareness of important social and political issues.
Rob
The Times story makes me think that probably around 1945 or 1946, people were saying the exact same thing about television. ;)
Heck...I think they were saying this about the "penny dreadfuls" over one hundred years ago.
Still...17 hours a day. I don't even know anyone who watches that much TV.
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