I just finished reading an article in Wired (18.02) entitled, “The Lost Boy” by Christopher S. Stewart. It recounts the tragic story of a mother and father in China who send their son to a camp that allegedly cures children of Internet addiction, only to have him beaten to death by the camps “counselors.” Internet addiction is a growing concern in nearly every developed nation, though China often gets the most press as Chinese children have been increasingly apt to “escape” to the Internet because of the academic and social pressures they endure.
The stories in the state-run newspaper are shocking and shows the level of addiction these people suffer and die from. The article provides several examples:
“…A fire in an unlicensed Internet café killed 25 people engaged in all-night gaming sessions…two kids from Chongqing, exhausted after two days of gaming, passed out on railroad tracks and were killed by a train…a 13-year-old from Tianjin finished a 36-hour session of World of Warcraft and leaped off the roof of his 24-story building, hoping to “join the heroes of the game”…”
It’s shocking to think that these people were so wrapped up in their game they couldn’t pull themselves out of a burning building or drag themselves off railroad tracks to safety. It makes me think how close to addiction I might be. I could sit at my computer for hours, working on this blog or interacting on Facebook and Twitter (@justjason), even reading articles like, “5 Ways to Avoid Sabotaging Your Personal Brand Online,” and in all those hours not thinking for once about eating or hydrating. I could be withering away right before your very eyes… actually, I could do with some withering away, but that is a different post altogether.
The Internet is everywhere and it’s hard not to be connected all the time. It’s at home, work and even on our cell phones. Many of you might be suffering from Internet addiction and not even realize it. I took an Internet Addiction Test at netaddiction.com and I was congratulated with a score of 48.
20 – 49 points: You are an average on-line user. You may surf the Web a bit too long at times, but you have control over your usage.
I’m just two points away from,
50 – 79 points: You are experiencing occasional or frequent problems because of the Internet. You should consider their full impact on your life.
How did you score? Where you surprised by your score? It seems the moment we begin taking something for granted it ends up killing us, as it did those people. It’s widely publicized that the Chinese government is cracking down on Internet addiction and have done everything in their power to quell this distraction. It seemed these unlicensed camps were the holy grail to their problems. However, with mounting evidence of abuse, torture and deaths, the Chinese government set up guidelines banning such techniques after much criticism from the public.
The whole article was very depressing and showed just how rampant Internet addiction is in China; how it’s affecting families and the Chinese government and what people are doing to take advantage of both. What are your thoughts on Internet addiction? Is it something that American’s should be more concerned about?
