Internet Addiction

[Cyrillej1]

http://www.upworthy.com/how-china-deals-with-internet-addicted-teens-is-kind-of-shocking-and-maybe-a-good-idea-2?c=reccon3

 

I watched this documentary called Web Junkie the other day... It's about kids being so addicted to the internet (sometimes playing couple weeks straight or even months). They are put into these centers, almost like a jail, to "cure" their addiction. They take classes, listening to lectures to change their way of thinking and must adhere to strict rules/exercises. Forced to stay 3months against their will once they are brought/forced inside the center.

 

I personally don't think it's effective at all, and disagree with what they put the kids through.  I'll probably elaborate my own thoughts on why I think so later.

 

-But I'm just wondering what other people's thoughts on it are. Do you think it's a good idea? Do you think their methods work for curing internet addiction?

 

-Why do you think some people get super addicted to the internet, and what method do you think would work best to stop the addiction?  (Like example: If you had a child that was going through this Internet Addiction, what would you do?)

 

-Also, I'd like to hear any personal experiences with Internet Addiction as well if anyone has gone through it, whether you're still addicted or have gotten it under control (how you did it).  It'd be interesting to hear people's stories.

Edited March 25, 2015 by Cyrillej1

[Nosebleed]

Ah yes, the Chinese. I've seen reports on this some years ago so this is not actually new.

 

I don't completely disagree with them in the sense that, if you want to cure your addiction, you really need to be deprived of it.

What I don't really agree with, however, is all the random crap that they try to drill in their brains in the process. That to me feels like overkill.

 

But I might not have the right to talk here.

China has serious internet addiction issues. There's been several people dying due to playing for days straight on web cafes and stuff like that. Just a month ago in Taiwan a 32 year old man died after playing an online game for 3 days straight. 

This is a serious problem over there and so I kind of understand why they are being so vehement about it, to the point where they need to build boot camps.

 

The way I see it is, China's internet addiction is escalating to the level of drugs, and with drugs you also need severe rehab, and I guess they're applying the same concept to internet addiction.

 

I don't think this is just a simple case of "the kid just won't let go of the computer" that you see in the west. These are people who literally have behavior problems due to their internet addictions and they can legitimately cause harm both to themselves and others. So the boot camp might really be the only way to set them straight.

 

As to why people get addicted to the internet, the answer is obvious: cat videos

[rainsismyfav]

I have one high school classmate who died from straight-up playing on the internet for hours and hours.... I mean I used to do it too when I was young. I was a MAJOR internet addict (mmos like Ragnarok online). But I never deprived myself of food or sleep. I don't know how people can get addicted to the point that they'd neglect basic bodily needs..

[Kenshin_sama]

As to why people get addicted to the internet, the answer is obvious: cat videos

I'm more inclined to believe that WoW is the root of all evil in this situation.

It's really hard to say whether boot camp is taking things too far or not, but I do not feel it should be a preferred method. Most of the kids taken there were probably not mentally ready for that kind of treatment, and it could lead to some kind of trauma if things go seriously wrong for them. While the internet may the outlet in which this situation occurs, I would say that the source of the problem definitely lies with the parents. From what it seems in this situation, there are just too many parents that do not take their roles seriously. They'd make haphazard attempts to raise their child, lack the patience needed to communicate efficiently and guide their children in the right direction, and could try to force better living habits unto them without properly thinking of more efficient ways to teach them. Most importantly, the parents aren't there for their kids as often as they should be. If what I understand is correct, loneliness would be a major attributing factor for younger people to seek sanction from the internet. It may not have been as big of a deal back when the internet was not quite as easy to get access to, and that might be why many parents don't realize how important it is to take preventative measures again this, but it'll be too late by the time they learn. If the internet weren't here, one could stave off boredom or loneliness by getting with friends and going out to places, but that isn't nearly as addicting and won't always be comfortable. With personal computers and home internet or internet cafes, there's an infinite number of things you can do in one location and it wouldn't be nearly as much of a hassle as making friends and going out. Once a those people begin to get too comfortable with being on computers, they can start to develop an addiction to it, and the potential to take this to an extreme will be there. But parents won't realize this until after the damage becomes serious, and then they have to resort to boot camp due to their inadequacy to remedy this on their own. I feel that taking measures to make adults more aware of the potential hazards would be much more preferable to boot camp. Perhaps they can start issuing out booklets on how to prevent children from developing unhealthy life habits. Advertising this issue could also help to alleviate this problem.

 

Also, I can't help but wonder if most of those kids even deserved to be there. It seemed to me that some of them would have been okay if they just had a stern talking to. Perhaps the media encourages parents to send their kids to boot camp on an impulse. Kinda like saying, "If your child suffers from internet addiction, don't hesitate to send him off to boot camp.", or something like that. I really hope that's not the case.

[Mugi]

I feel like this would only be appropriate in very extreme cases. Me, for instance. I suppose you could say i'm addicted to the internet, because I don't really have friends and i'm also not the best at making them, so all I really have is anime/manga/VN's and the like, and it's all I've had for a while. I still interact with my family, I eat and sleep just fine, and I keep clean, so I don't really see it as much as a problem. Of course it's no the healthiest lifestyle because of being anti-social, but it's no where near a problem. But I suppose in cases like the ones in the video that extreme measures should probably be taken, however this seems to be a bit too extreme, I mean can these parents really not control their kids? And one parent had to DRUG them to drag them there, like what the hell? These kids would have had to been raised without ever being punished or something. I wonder how common cases like this are, like I see people that really get into things like WoW and spend a bit much time on there, but not enough to where they neglect personal hygiene, food, and change into a whole different person. 

 

Also, I can't help but wonder if most of those kids even deserved to be there. It seemed to me that some of them would have been okay if they just had a stern talking to. Perhaps the media encourages parents to send their kids to boot camp on an impulse. Kinda like saying, "If your child suffers from internet addiction, don't hesitate to send him off to boot camp.", or something like that. I really hope that's not the case.

[Bolverk]

From my western rosed glasses, this seems like a expected development in a society such a the cityscape in China. The way to fix the problem they will use extreme measures.

 

Honestly from the vid you linked it seemed like the boys there had it boring and felt they had to only study or being lonely/bored. When they discovered Internet games they found both friends and fun. Filled the gap in them and they started to reject the normal world. If they actually put that many hours into gaming/internet I'd normally expect the parents have stopped them if they saw this development. But either they didn't or couldn't (pampering parents due to the 1 child policy?). Parents just expected their kids to follow the social norms. And when they didn't do that, they found the best to put them in a facility. 

[ExtraMana]

http://www.upworthy.com/how-china-deals-with-internet-addicted-teens-is-kind-of-shocking-and-maybe-a-good-idea-2?c=reccon3

 

I watched this documentary called Web Junkie the other day... It's about kids being so addicted to the internet (sometimes playing couple weeks straight or even months). They are put into these centers, almost like a jail, to "cure" their addiction. They take classes, listening to lectures to change their way of thinking and must adhere to strict rules/exercises. Forced to stay 3months against their will once they are brought/forced inside the center.

 

I personally don't think it's effective at all, and disagree with what they put the kids through.  I'll probably elaborate my own thoughts on why I think so later.

 

-But I'm just wondering what other people's thoughts on it are. Do you think it's a good idea? Do you think their methods work for curing internet addiction?

 

-Why do you think some people get super addicted to the internet, and what method do you think would work best to stop the addiction?  (Like example: If you had a child that was going through this Internet Addiction, what would you do?)

 

-Also, I'd like to hear any personal experiences with Internet Addiction as well if anyone has gone through it, whether you're still addicted or have gotten it under control (how you did it).  It'd be interesting to hear people's stories.

[xplodax]

Do you mean an online gaming addiction, or an internet addiction as a whole? Because people use the internet far more than they think they do, haha. The internet's pretty huge, so I don't really know if it's possible to say you're addicted to the internet.

 

As for me, my advice would be to find new hobbies that you think you'll enjoy. Instead doing that one thing all day every day, you've suddenly got three, and you can devote your time equally (and maybe break out of your old habits in the process).

 

This stuff's purely theoretical, by the way. I don't have any experiences with addiction, I don't think. Though if I had to give one example, I'd say I'm way into cookery, haha. I love to cook, learn about ingredients and combinations, getting people to criticize my food, yada yada. But it's not like I'm not addicted or anything, you know! 

[Stray Cat]

I've read some other articles on it.  It seems like some cases operate more like military camps and have even killed some of the kids (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=8269601) so no I don't agree with that method of treatment.  I do agree with the idea of getting them into a rehab like facility and depriving them of  access since that's typically the only way to attempt to deal with addiction.

 

This type of thing has to be examined with an emic perspective though.  China has a history of extremest policies (just look at the one-child policy) so I'm not shocker per-say to see this. 

[Eclipsed]

I'm just surprised I see children running around with hex-core tablet-phone-laptop hybrids doing the SpaceMyFace and the Twitcher

[Cyrillej1]

China has serious internet addiction issues. There's been several people dying due to playing for days straight on web cafes and stuff like that. Just a month ago in Taiwan a 32 year old man died after playing an online game for 3 days straight. 

This is a serious problem over there and so I kind of understand why they are being so vehement about it, to the point where they need to build boot camps.

Yeah, I've heard of couple incidents like that.. dying from heart failure, and such. There was also an incident where a korean couple spent so much time at a pc cafe, that their neglected 4month baby died from hunger. Just crazy.

 

I'm more inclined to believe that WoW is the root of all evil in this situation.

It's really hard to say whether boot camp is taking things too far or not, but I do not feel it should be a preferred method. Most of the kids taken there were probably not mentally ready for that kind of treatment, and it could lead to some kind of trauma if things go seriously wrong for them. While the internet may the outlet in which this situation occurs, I would say that the source of the problem definitely lies with the parents. From what it seems in this situation, there are just too many parents that do not take their roles seriously. They'd make haphazard attempts to raise their child, lack the patience needed to communicate efficiently and guide their children in the right direction, and could try to force better living habits unto them without properly thinking of more efficient ways to teach them. Most importantly, the parents aren't there for their kids as often as they should be. If what I understand is correct, loneliness would be a major attributing factor for younger people to seek sanction from the internet. It may not have been as big of a deal back when the internet was not quite as easy to get access to, and that might be why many parents don't realize how important it is to take preventative measures again this, but it'll be too late by the time they learn. If the internet weren't here, one could stave off boredom or loneliness by getting with friends and going out to places, but that isn't nearly as addicting and won't always be comfortable. With personal computers and home internet or internet cafes, there's an infinite number of things you can do in one location and it wouldn't be nearly as much of a hassle as making friends and going out. Once a those people begin to get too comfortable with being on computers, they can start to develop an addiction to it, and the potential to take this to an extreme will be there. But parents won't realize this until after the damage becomes serious, and then they have to resort to boot camp due to their inadequacy to remedy this on their own. I feel that taking measures to make adults more aware of the potential hazards would be much more preferable to boot camp. Perhaps they can start issuing out booklets on how to prevent children from developing unhealthy life habits. Advertising this issue could also help to alleviate this problem.

 

Also, I can't help but wonder if most of those kids even deserved to be there. It seemed to me that some of them would have been okay if they just had a stern talking to. Perhaps the media encourages parents to send their kids to boot camp on an impulse. Kinda like saying, "If your child suffers from internet addiction, don't hesitate to send him off to boot camp.", or something like that. I really hope that's not the case.

 

But I suppose in cases like the ones in the video that extreme measures should probably be taken, however this seems to be a bit too extreme, I mean can these parents really not control their kids? And one parent had to DRUG them to drag them there, like what the hell? These kids would have had to been raised without ever being punished or something.

 

I agree with this too, I feel as if a lot of these kids just spent a little more time than usual on the internet and their parents didn't know how to deal with it, so off to boot camp they go. 

I totally agree with you guys on all points here. This was the same thought process going through me as I was watching the documentary. I actually got really annoyed with how the parents were dealing with it. Not once did any of the parents actually sit down and try talking to their kids, try to find out the root of the problem and figure out a solution together.. only when they were forced to in the family meetings, and even that was super awkward. Seems a lot of guilt/shame is used, instead of support.  If I were to imagine myself in the child's situation.... if my parents sat done and had a talk with me about the consequences of me continuing to play too much, like being sent to a boot camp, even that'd be convincing enough for me to cut back. I'm NOT saying threatening is the best method but even something as simple as that could have worked, but I even doubt any of the parents did that. The parents seem completely clueless about how to even interact with their child in the first place... I think it could have something to do with the general asian family dynamic contributing to this as well. The parents have a tendency to only focus on their children's studies as a disciplinary, and can neglect everything else, like the child's emotional well-being.. being clueless on how to handle it, they take the easy way out and send 'em to a boot camp they think will automatically cure and take care of "their problem".

 

From my western rosed glasses, this seems like a expected development in a society such a the cityscape in China. The way to fix the problem they will use extreme measures.

 

Honestly from the vid you linked it seemed like the boys there had it boring and felt they had to only study or being lonely/bored. When they discovered Internet games they found both friends and fun. Filled the gap in them and they started to reject the normal world. If they actually put that many hours into gaming/internet I'd normally expect the parents have stopped them if they saw this development. But either they didn't or couldn't (pampering parents due to the 1 child policy?). Parents just expected their kids to follow the social norms. And when they didn't do that, they found the best to put them in a facility. 

The way I see it.. usually for someone to become so engrossed and addicted to a virtual reality to that extreme, it's probably because they are missing something they are unable to attain in the real world, whether it's to fill the dullness in life, friends, love, adventure, an escape, etc.  they spend their time online because it's beneficial to them in some way that trumps living/putting effort into their real lives. That's why I think these boot camps are going about it the wrong way.  What the heck does doing military exercises do to help with an internet addiction?? That to me, is a waste of time since it's not really doing anything to help change the mindset of someone addicted.  The lessons might be helpful... but it's not very effective if it's just lecturing passively and made to make you feel negative feelings constantly, bombarding ideas into you that you may already reject. And these kids are treated like horribly btw, they can't even say "fuck" or show their frustrations without getting into trouble. I mean, you're living like you're in a jail cell.

 

A method that would seem more beneficial to me, would be like an open space outside where kids & parents are required to be there spending time together. The parents have to be as involved in the process of recovery as the child is. That way, even when the child leaves the camp, the parent will still be there to reinforce what's been learned. They can do things together, build that bond of support, help them with skills to make friends in real life, show them new hobbies they can do and get them to do it, interact with them positively, new skills, etc. so the child, on their own, can come to realize or prefer partaking in the real world more because not only can they get what they are looking for, it's also more healthy and beneficial to them. Let them experience what they wanted from the game, but in the real world instead. 

 

This is MMO addiction. There is no such thing as internet addiction T-T. Surfing the web, checking email and watching YouTube isn't interesting enough for 24+hours continually.

The Chinese have this due to need to achieve constantly from strict unloving parents why go back to that when your a level 90 Warlock?

You can be addicted to anything you do obsessively, I think... wanting that pleasure you get from it. I just said Internet Addiction because that's how the documentary worded it, but I also wanted the topic to be broad enough that other people could share if they have similar experiences. People can be addicted to Facebook, and such too, but it's probably not as extreme as what's being talked about in relation to the documentary I guess.

 

Do you mean an online gaming addiction, or an internet addiction as a whole? Because people use the internet far more than they think they do, haha. The internet's pretty huge, so I don't really know if it's possible to say you're addicted to the internet.

 

As for me, my advice would be to find new hobbies that you think you'll enjoy. Instead doing that one thing all day every day, you've suddenly got three, and you can devote your time equally (and maybe break out of your old habits in the process).

 

This stuff's purely theoretical, by the way. I don't have any experiences with addiction, I don't think. Though if I had to give one example, I'd say I'm way into cookery, haha. I love to cook, learn about ingredients and combinations, getting people to criticize my food, yada yada. But it's not like I'm not addicted or anything, you know! 

I kinda meant both, but focusing more on MMOs probably because they are easily the more extreme cases... but I think Internet Addiction in another sense could have also ruined some people's lives, or caused them to be less active in real life than their virtual life.

 

I've read some other articles on it.  It seems like some cases operate more like military camps and have even killed some of the kids (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=8269601) so no I don't agree with that method of treatment.  I do agree with the idea of getting them into a rehab like facility and depriving them of  access since that's typically the only way to attempt to deal with addiction.

 

This type of thing has to be examined with an emic perspective though.  China has a history of extremest policies (just look at the one-child policy) so I'm not shocker per-say to see this. 

I'm honestly not surprised some kids died from it.. probably why my first impression on how it was run, I disagreed with.  I think depriving of access is a good method.... but it's hard to keep under control unless the person themselves decides to have self-control or can get to that point in mindset, especially after they leave and have the freedom to engage in it again. Some people may have a hard time believing they even have a problem in the first place because it's just a game. I assumed, the majority of children in the boot camps probably played games again after they left. It's like how negative reinforcement not always sticking long term. If anything, they probably become more stubborn/worse because of how they were treated by everyone (trauma of it).

 

I believe internet/gaming addiction is real, but there seems to be a disconnect between western parents' understanding of it and the actual addiction itself.  My mom tried to tell me I was addicted to games and the internet before, even though just about everyone I know that's male, in my age group and isn't a jock or a major socialite spends just as much time, if not more, on the computer or their gaming console.  The people in China and South Korea that are going to rehab for it literally cannot function normally or have declining health because of the influence of games and the internet.  I feel that there needs to be more information about this type of thing before game and internet rehabs actually become mainstream in the west.

They should probably take a look at former people who were addicted but stopped, before ever making those kinds of centers with no understanding of it.  How did these people change their mindset, and what keeps driving it kind of thing.

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

[Stray Cat]

I'm honestly not surprised some kids died from it.. probably why my first impression on how it was run, I disagreed with.  I think depriving of access is a good method.... but it's hard to keep under control unless the person themselves decides to have self-control or can get to that point in mindset, especially after they leave and have the freedom to engage in it again. Some people may have a hard time believing they even have a problem in the first place because it's just a game. I assumed, the majority of children in the boot camps probably played games again after they left. It's like how negative reinforcement not always sticking long term. If anything, they probably become more stubborn/worse because of how they were treated by everyone (trauma of it).

Nah, negative enough reinforcement can actually be effective, but it shouldn't be life-threatening.  Otherwise the whole intervention is pointless anyways. 

[Stray Cat]

Depends on the person, really.  Negative reinforcement doesn't work too well on me; unless it's quite harsh, I become even more determined to do the opposite of what the authority figure wants me to do.  I was very nice to the teachers I liked in high school, which was most of them, but man, I was a huge smartass to the ones I didn't like, and literally nothing could get me to stop treating them that way.  I'm honestly kinda surprised I didn't get detentions for being openly sarcastic to certain teachers.

 

I'm actually quite stubborn

Don't worry, ECT can fix that and pretty much any other problem you're diagnosed with. 

[Stray Cat]

 

In my defense, the teachers in question were a godawful combination of being very strict and incompatible with my learning style, while also having very abrasive, rude personalities.  Everyone in my family, including my mom, who's a teacher, said that they were terrible teachers.  I literally taught myself out of the textbook better than they taught me 

 

But yeah, my personal experiences aside, negative reinforcement has varying success depending on the subject.

Have you read One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest?  I hope not but I imagine some centers being very similar to that.  I mean, think of all the stuff that was allowed here for the longest time. 

[Cyrillej1]

Have you read One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest?  I hope not but I imagine some centers being very similar to that.  I mean, think of all the stuff that was allowed here for the longest time. 

 

Read the book and watched the movie.  It's so hard not to get attached to McMurphy and co., even though it's obvious things won't work out for them...

Hmm, maybe I should try watching it. Never seen it before.  1975... >_<;

[Stray Cat]

Hmm, maybe I should try watching it. Never seen it before.  1975... >_<;

Worth the read.  Movie wasn't as good IMO but you get the idea of how messed up things were. 

[Cyrillej1]

Worth the read.  Movie wasn't as good IMO but you get the idea of how messed up things were. 

Hmm, I'll definitely keep it in mind. I could go to the library and check it out some time if I feel like reading a new book. -writes it down-

 

-oh and I'm also gonna chime in xD, that I'm quite stubborn myself.. so probably why I dislike extreme use of negative reinforcement.  I prefer positive or a mix at least~

 

The whole boot camp was a scare tactic in itself it seems, like military drills, jail-like dorming, and forced lectures (brainwashing). It would scare me to have to go back there and waste another couple months... but at the same time, my stubbornness might just do it again to rebel if I believe I wasn't doing anything wrong.

[Nosebleed]

I know this was about China but I think this is kinda relevant.

This is the type of stuff that happens when you actually have an addiction. When something actually takes control of your life. And I feel like the kids in China probably face similar thoughts.

And this is also probably why these types of extreme boot camps actually don't feel that insane after you know what happens when you let your children let their addictions take over.

 

This one was in America, though.

 

A 12-year-old girl was detained in Boulder, Colorado, on Friday after she tried to poison her mother twice in retaliation for her taking away the girl’s iPhone, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office told BuzzFeed News.

 

On March 2, the mother got sick after she drank a smoothie her daughter made for her with bleach, police said. The mother said she detected an odor of bleach, and assumed her daughter hadn’t cleaned the glass properly prior to concocting the drink, the Sheriff’s Office stated in a press release.

 

Later in the week, on March 6, the daughter allegedly poured bleach into a water carafe her mother kept in her bedroom, leading the mother to confront her daughter.

At that point, the girl told her mom she wanted to kill her for taking away her iPhone, police said.

 

The mother was taken to the Boulder Community Hospital, where she called the police. They immediately began an investigation to find probable cause, Sgt. Bill Crist of the sheriff’s office told BuzzFeed News.

 

On March 20, the girl was detained at the Boulder County Juvenile Center and charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder.

 

“She had pre-planned this a couple different times,” said Crist, speaking about the pre-teen’s actions. He added that the mother has since recovered and is out of the hospital.

 

The District Attorney’s office will continue to investigate the situation and decide what charges to pursue.

 

 

Source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/alisonvingiano/a-12-year-old-girl-allegedly-tried-to-poison-her-mother-twic

 

While I do agree this is a specific and isolated case and not the general rule, it does serve as an example to demonstrate the kind of people that probably end up in those boot camps as well as what digital mediums can do to you.

[Stray Cat]

With 1/7th of the world's one would assume theirs a higher percentage of crazies too.  More likely though, those kids are under a lot of stress to succeed.  Like mentally crippling stress.  It's no wonder some would turn to addiction. 

[Nosebleed]

In the end, I feel like there's many factors to blame, and it's all a vicious cycle in China's case.

Ridiculous work schedules which in turn don't let parents stay with their kids which in turn leaves kids by themselves to learn how to deal with basically anything and some end up turning torwards computers/games and in extreme cases it turns into an addiction.

 

In the west we have better laws in regards to this, but it can still happen under certain circumstacnes as seen above.

 

Moral of the story: Don't let your kids have unlimited access to the internet and games until they're old enough to know how to moderate things. My parents let my have a computer when I was 13, now look at me, I've become a forum moderator *internal cries*

[rainsismyfav]

In the end, I feel like there's many factors to blame, and it's all a vicious cycle in China's case.

Ridiculous work schedules which in turn don't let parents stay with their kids which in turn leaves kids by themselves to learn how to deal with basically anything and some end up turning torwards computers/games and in extreme cases it turns into an addiction.

 

In the west we have better laws in regards to this, but it can still happen under certain circumstacnes as seen above.

 

Moral of the story: Don't let your kids have unlimited access to the internet and games until they're old enough to know how to moderate things

 

Well when I was a kid, I was pretty much unsupervised. My dad was a salaryman who I would almost never see during weekdays, and my mom is in another country. I had to learn how to moderate things early on.. I did go quite out-of-hand a couple of times but I pretty much learned restraint and control on my own.

 

Man I miss having a maid when I was a kid though. She'd get me water and tie my shoes. #real

[Cyrillej1]

The reason why this topic interests me, is because I used to be seriously addicted to an mmorpg before when I was younger. I probably would have been considered an extreme case by their standards.  So I think I can almost kind of understand the mindset they could have had because I was there before.

 

But~ similar to @Rain... I don't remember exactly what snapped me out of it, but I made a conscious choice and effort to myself to stay away from MMOs, and that's the long-term "cure" I think they were trying to get with their kids.  There has to be a conscious effort on the person's part of actually wanting to stop it to make it long-term, I think... 

 

Imagining myself in their shoes, I don't think it works, because like I said.. they seem to be attacking the addiction the wrong way that isn't helpful in overcoming it and keeping the mindset to keep the addiction off.  Sometimes a simple heart-to-heart and understanding with the parent could be enough to set boundaries, etc.  in some cases, completely cutting off the source of addiction without actually dealing with the root of the problem or even a warning could have a bad backfire to it.  That's also why I think the parents should also become more informed so they can understand and know what to look for and prevent it before it even gets worse too....

 

And~ that's why I think China probably has it hard, because the parents probably don't even notice anything is wrong until their children have already dropped out of school or something.  By that point, the child is already really invested into the virtual world, that it'll take some time to change his mindset about it. 

[Kenshin_sama]

Moral of the story: Don't let your kids have unlimited access to the internet and games until they're old enough to know how to moderate things. My parents let my have a computer when I was 13, now look at me, I've become a forum moderator *internal cries*

I still think I'm pretty bad, and I got my PC when I was 18. Probably because I grew up poor and didn't have the luxury to receive a computer until I got a job, lol. A PS2 and a box TV is all I grew up with. Even though I do have a little bit of an addiction to the internet, I still do the bare minimum to take care of myself and keep my living space clean. Though I gotta admit, I probably would be a lot better off in life if I didn't spend a large chunk of time online.

 

It wasn't even until recently that I developed an internet addiction. There's actually a couple major factors that lead to my circumstances. For one, my stepfather passed away 5 years ago, and I can attribute almost my entire character to his parenting. He was hard on me and always tried to push me to not be lazy. But after looking back on that, I realized that he was the only reason I worked as hard as I did, because I didn't want him to be disappointed in me. The other factor is my loss of pride while in the Army. I had a lot of bad experiences with my squad and team leaders due to my adjustment disorder, ADD, anxiety disorder, lack of practical work skills, and lack of common sense. I had enough common sense to not break any serious rules, but that wasn't enough to cover for the numerous small mistakes I was constantly making. After my discharge had gone through, I just ended up in a completely demotivated state and didn't want to do anything other than hole myself up in my room and live a carefree life on the internet. On top of that, I receive a decent sum of money for the disabilities I sustained in the military. I kept telling myself I'd get a job, but I just kept pushing it off due to the fact that I just barely make enough to get by cheaply. Now there was a time where I was pushed into a corner and had to start working again, but the only job I could find in a short span of time was customer service over the phone... and it was just miserable. Most of the calls I have are from people who do nothing but vent their frustrations while I continue to sit there and assist them with more kindness than they deserve. All the while, we're put under very strict call quality standards, pushed into keeping call times low, required to keep detailed documentation for every call, and not allowed the leisure of taking breaks in between calls. Eventually, I got to the point to where I was extremely anxious to take calls again and I quit the job that very same day. Surprisingly enough, I actually did keep good scores while I was working there and got along really well with my managers, but I just couldn't handle the stress of the job itself. Not only that, but I was no longer in a desperate financial situation, so I had little incentive to keep working. And now I'm here, living with my mom and aunt, and spending almost every bit of my free time online. My mom is nowhere near self-sufficient enough to take care of herself, my sister is spoiled, my brother is 22 and still going through a stupid emo phase, and my aunt has no consideration for the people around her. She doesn't take care of her dogs either, and they do too many things that stress the hell out of me. I can't even sleep properly because they bark at night. I take to the internet because I can't stand the people I live with and work life just sucks.

 

And there's my life story. I kinda feel a sense of relief writing this out.

[Darklord Rooke]

It has been proposed that the rate of internet addiction in China is higher than the rate in America because the internet is an emerging technology (Americans have been exposed to this technology for longer,) and has little to do with choice of lifestyle between the two countries. That being said the rate isn't extremely high even in China.

 

Greece also has an extremely high internet addiction rate (comparitively) among high school teens, some studies place it higher than China's at about 8.2%.

[SilverLi]

I can make a comparison between myself and my brother which is 7 years old. It differs 15 years between us and I am maybe a bit biased because my memory is crap. But I knew I was playing a lot with toys and friends when I was at his age. Yes I was playing too but not nearly as much as my little brother is. 

 

I had the dreadful 1 hour rule. When I arrived home from school I had 1 hour of gametime. It was maybe 2 hours on weekends. I know I spent most of my childhood/pre-teen playing in the sandbox or with Lego. Most of the time with my childhood friends too. Maybe my brother is arriving to that stage soon too. 

 

But the difference is that I had the 1 hour rule until I was 12 -13 at least. I recall my parents told me to shut down when they thought I played too much until I was at least 15. My little brother is probably using an iPad in first grade. He is also using an iPad at home a lot more than he should. But he is shutting down when told so. But he doesn't have any restrictions or rules.

 

Yes I know we live in a digital era now and it is different generations. But it feels odd and weird how it can be so different. I think we had our first computer 15 years ago with a slow ass Internet connection. Today we all got an individual PC/laptop.

 

But I think the new generation is going to have big problems later on if the parents aren't aware or somewhat strict with rules.