Electronic Heroin

[dianna]

China’s Web Junkies

New York Times
January 19, 2014


This video is part of a series produced by independent filmmakers who have received support from the nonprofit Sundance Institute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqctG3NnDa0

Compulsive Internet use has been categorized as a mental health issue in many countries, including the United States, but China was among the first to label “Internet addiction” a clinical disorder.

In this Op-Doc video, we show the inner workings of a rehabilitation center where Chinese teenagers are “deprogrammed.” The Internet Addiction Treatment Center, in Daxing, a suburb of Beijing, was established in 2004. It was one of the first of its kind – and there are now hundreds of treatment programs throughout China and South Korea.
http://d1zhdulzy5lsh5.cloudfront.net/assets/_sized/ba4d98529ede6b01/Web_Junkie_Dogwoof_Documentary_Quad_392_300_85.jpg
(The first inpatient Internet addiction program in the United States recently opened in Pennsylvania.)

The program featured in this video admits teenagers, usually male, whose parents typically take them there against their will. Once inside, the children are kept behind bars and guarded by soldiers. Treatment, which often lasts three to four months, includes medication and therapy, and sometimes includes parents. Patients undergo military-inspired physical training, and their sleep and diet are carefully regulated. These techniques (some of which are also used in China to treat other behavioral disorders) are intended to help the patients reconnect with reality.

Yet after four months of filming in this center (for our documentary “Web Junkie”), some vital questions remained: Are the children being accurately evaluated? And is the treatment effective? In many cases, it seemed parents were blaming the Internet for complex social and behavioral issues that may defy such interventions. (For example, we noticed that some patients experienced difficult family relationships, social introversion and a lack of friends in the physical world.) Tao Ran, the center’s director, claims a 70 percent success rate. If that’s true, perhaps China’s treatment model is something other nations should embrace, however disturbing it may seem to outsiders. There is still no real global consensus among experts about what constitutes addiction to the Internet, and whether the concept even exists, particularly in a strict medical sense.

What is clear is that this issue is not confined to China. With millions (if not billions) glued to screens and electronic devices, the overuse of technology is becoming a universal, transnational concern. While treatment methods may vary, one way or another, we will need to find effective ways to moderate our use of technology and provide help to those who need it.


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/20/opinion/chinas-web-junkies.html?_r=1

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

Ouch -- in France, there's a curfew (at least for MMOs)!
Why can't the Chinese just regulate the time spent rather than torture the kids more?

Our country doesn't really address it much; the fixation is treated as normal as long as the content is "mainstream" or Hollywood related.

[donk]

I blame sh!tty parenting...at least in my case. It's hard to teach your kids moderation on the shiny screens when you're an addict yourself.

"YOU, ALRIGHT...I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU!!"

Parents who use screens, have children who use screens.

[dianna]

Ouch -- in France, there's a curfew (at least for MMOs)!
Why can't the Chinese just regulate the time spent rather than torture the kids more?

Our country doesn't really address it much; the fixation is treated as normal as long as the content is "mainstream" or Hollywood related.

I'm thinking you can't regulate addiction … stories like this terrify me for some reason …

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

I blame sh!tty parenting...at least in my case. It's hard to teach your kids moderation on the shiny screens when you're an addict yourself.

"YOU, ALRIGHT...I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU!!"

Parents who use screens, have children who use screens.
That, and the degradation of the entertainment sector!

Ex: Bugs Bunny vs. Fairly Oddparents... if you thought Bugs was ADHD, just watch what's on Nickelodeon. :(

it's a systematic attack on the intellect.

(but you are right, lots of us who played WoW and other addictive games had a hard time getting offline -- it's not like a forum where the post is done and you get up and make coffee -- Wow was like... well, the OP compares this to heroin, that's close -- I had a psychiatrist tell me that casino games release chemicals in the brain that mimic coke.)

LOL!

:)

Hopefully most of us here are addicted to smart and not to stupid!

@ Dianna sorry I didn't see your post (was in between).
In France they knew they couldn't regulate the addiction but they cut off the supply lines at a certain hour of day/night.

Since some games can't work with TOR or VPNs, it did work to "cure" some people of at least the insomnia part.

[dianna]

I blame sh!tty parenting...at least in my case. It's hard to teach your kids moderation on the shiny screens when you're an addict yourself.

"YOU, ALRIGHT...I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU!!"

Parents who use screens, have children who use screens.

I'm not sure its completely a parenting problem … part of it maybe, but not the whole nefarious story ...

[donk]

I wouldn't call it "the degradation of the entertainment industry", it's more of a refinement of the owners' programming and tech.

Heroin is refined opium...Hannah Montana is refined Mickey Mouse Club...

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

I wouldn't call it "the degradation of the entertainment industry", it's more of a refinement of the owners' programming and tech.

USA Today covered that stuff a little; I picked up a moldy copy of it in our car, and there was an article in Business section about the company "Optimizely" and how the founders got Obama elected by using their efficient "A/B" live testing to "improve conversion rates of visitations to donations" for Senator Obama. They claimed that they were up against the new "SUPER-PACs" who are conglomerate entities formed by megacorps working together. They can do things like run a commercial campaign or a website for a political candidate; the only thing they cannot do is give them money directly. Which means that if a Super PAC gave enough money, Obama could have had half the people in Hollywood running his campaign, lol... but the story is, he was working against these Super PACs via the internet and is the Internet Messiah, lmao.

Omg. :(

Anyhow about what Donk said about refinement of the tools at the disposal of the merchants and gatekeepers, it's the truth and it's why we have this president, too.

For example. if you are not a libertarian, Optimizely should be able to keep you from seeing media that could change your mind, lol.
That's the power of the controlling the information at its source, like Bing.

Bing, fries are done, pretty much

Welcome to McWorld

[Selene]

Jeez. I wish I knew how to retrieve a New Yorker article from some years ago about the science of creating gambling machines/slot machines for Las Vegas. It was all about how to make online gambling addictive, about response times and positive feedback. It is a science, and well practiced.

And everything the article says plays perfectly into the new internet environment for everything.

Yes, the internet is addictive. Yes.

If you, as a parent doubt this, just try to extract that smartphone/mouse from your child’s hands and forbid its use for 24 hours.... hah!

The screaming, pleading and excuses will be revelatory.

Or try it yourself.

Cheers (not really...) :sad::sad::sad:

Selene

[DeDukshyn]

I blame sh!tty parenting...at least in my case. It's hard to teach your kids moderation on the shiny screens when you're an addict yourself.

"YOU, ALRIGHT...I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU!!"

Parents who use screens, have children who use screens.

Children will never do what you tell them, but they will grow up always doing what you did ... This is the number 1 consideration that must be heeded by every parent. To be is to teach. We are behooved to mind how we be - particularly while training children.

While not the whole aspect of these addictions, it can definitely be a major part.

I have seen many videos of kids going absolutely psycho because mom cancelled their WOW account that they were racking up 6 hours a day on while trying to go to school. Err... why would you let your kid do that in the first place? It's the training in self management that almost all parents lack, because they themselves are poor self managers.

[TigaHawk]

I dont understand why this is being shown as such a bad thing - "addiction" to computers. Is it because it's not your stereotype of what a teenager/adult should be doing? like going out, getting into trouble - or going to bar's and clubs etc?


I'm an internet and computer "addict" if you will.

I'm 28 now, but my love of computer's started from when i was a child and was able to pull apart the old comodoor 64 when my parents upgraded to a 486.

I was badly bullied all throught school, i had difficulties making friends. To me the computer, and the internet, was a place i could be me without being crucified. People dont care who you are, what you look like, or what your interests are - you get along because you have common interests. that also has an oposite - ie online harasment - but thats something that you - the user can choose to opt out of by not participating in it and avoiding it.


My parents started having issues with the ammount of time i spent on the computer and started taking steps to combat it. They'd take the modem - i saved up pocket money and bought an internal one. When they figured that out, they took the power cord for the PC instead. I grabbed the kettle cord as a work around. Then finally, they beat me by taking the entire box with them to work in the boot of their car. No way around that one!

What realy shat me to tears about that - was it felt like my parents had an obscession against me being on the computer. I could not see the difference personaly between being on the PC , and sitting infront of the TV. They'd be perfectly ok with me spending the same ammont of time - if not more - in front of the TV.

Games that i play/ed from childhood to now range from harmless puzzell games, to WW2 shooters (to which i was damn good at for a 13yo girl thank you :rolleyes: ) to 100 tonne machine's beating eachother up with futuristic weapons, to online only fantasy MMO's where i'd hack and slash goblins and dragons. Few racing games, very few strategy games, i guess the main ones are shooters and MMO's. I guess from the eyes of some DR's and Professors i should be quite an angry and violent person considering the game's ive played... When in reality i'll avoid violence unless it absolutely must be used for self defence - Hell i'd still rather hurt myself than another person or animal.

As an Adult... i work in IT. I still love computers. I still prefer to come home each evening and jump on the PC, either to play games, simply surf the web, read forums, or watch youtube video's.

I personally feel that with the introduction of computers and the internet - it opend up another avenue of things you can choose to do in life - as in spend your time on. But because this is new, different.... not what society expects you to do... it's seen as a problem, not right... something that needs fixing... wait a minute... you can make money out of this too by calling it an "Addiction" and frowning apon it, and then setting up therapy, pills and councelling to "Fix the problem"


So what if i prefer to spend my time differently to others? Is the industry angry - and fighting back - that im not out in pub's and clubs pissing away my money? That im not out with other people investing my money into resteraunts and other venues's that people my age are allmost expected to go to because it's the "thing everyone else does" at that age?


Does it worry people that im content, find happyness and friendship primarily through digital means instead of your conventional face to face stuff - purely because it's different to what you were raised to expect and see as normal?


Has anyone considered that people are chosing to spend their time on a PC as it is such a fantastic escape from the BS of bullying, opression, and general crap that society likes to force on people as part of getting you ready to be a working class adult?

And most importantly - why do you care so much about what people like me choose to spend their time doing? Why is it a problem? Why does it need Fixing?

and that's my 2c :sad:


P.S - on another note i'd like to point out that computer games themselves are being changed and shaped to be another form of achieving "programming". Let's take WOW as an example. It's changed drematically since it first came out - to the point now that i feel it's soul purpose is to get people to accept - and like - boring, repetative tasks with pissant rewards. The same can be seen with games such as call of duty and battlefield - you will like - accept - and want more - of the exact same thing. repeat repeat repeat. Really seems like they are trying to stamp out the fun and creativity and turn it into something that makes you like boring, repetative things. (ie - work day to day for most people - lol) thus someones taking notice and trying to turn things around to benefit the system. Hense my comments above inquiring if the industry was upset im not spending money where they want it.


p.p.s - to further my point more - this "Epidemic" is rampant in China. See my notes about the internet being an escape for opression. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm :rolleyes:

[DeDukshyn]

Choosing to be self destructive is still destructive ...

It has nothing to do with using computers or having a job in IT ... this issue is psychological one. And it is real. I also work in IT as director of MIS for my company. I love computers too!


Look at this .. this is not normal, people ... and this is not china ...

ijNohhowplI

[Deborah (ahamkara)]

Fascinating vid. Does anyone else get the distinct impression the kid is hosting another entity? Certainly my guess would be an entity feeding off the child's emotion as he plays the game…. just a thought.

[Selene]

Choosing to be self destructive is still destructive ...

It has nothing to do with using computers or having a job in IT ... this issue is psychological one. And it is real. I also work in IT as director of MIS for my company. I love computers too!

Look at this .. this is not normal, people ... and this is not china ...

ijNohhowplI

If anyone has a better description of this child other than purefaced Addiction Withdrawal, I'd be fascinated to hear it, teenage tantrums notwithstanding. So sad to watch. S*x, but true.

You've been warned.

regards,

Selene

[DeDukshyn]

Fascinating vid. Does anyone else get the distinct impression the kid is hosting another entity? Certainly my guess would be an entity feeding off the child's emotion as he plays the game…. just a thought.

Perhaps a different topic, but I'd say not quite "hosting" but there are entities that will influence and encourage all sorts of situations were extreme emotional output is created ... he was providing food ... as all extreme emotional output provides food for certain entities. Is it bad? it is the way it is ... I for one, would like to have control over when and if I provide emotional food. Humans can feed on it too (likely more common) --- look at his brother ...

[TigaHawk]

Choosing to be self destructive is still destructive ...

It has nothing to do with using computers or having a job in IT ... this issue is psychological one. And it is real. I also work in IT as director of MIS for my company. I love computers too!


Look at this .. this is not normal, people ... and this is not china ...

ijNohhowplI


That video... you do realise that person has a mental disability - and is from a VERY spoilt family. His parents bought him a used ute as his first car - as your first car should be 2nd hand as chances is you'll have an accident. That kid goes psycho, grabs a baseball bat and starts beating the crap out of the car putting on a very similar display to the one in the video you linked. His underlying issues i'd lean more towards bad parenting, his disability and the medications he's on. Not to mention how this could also be staged - it became an internet hit and the 2nd video was a followup - then they started making money from merchandise.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFMs2w9Qexg

But it's far easier to blame a videogame than put parenting in the firing line, right?



P.S - You've said choosing to be destructive is still destructive. Are you hinting that im destructive because i choose to spend my time on the PC and internet? IF so - how is that destructive? Again - im thinking its because im not spending my time in a way that you would want or expect to spend yours. Thus that kinda puts you in the same boat as people who demand that muslim's should not wear a Burkhah when in America or Australia becuase you see it as a symbol of opression when they can see it as a symble of committment to their religon... Just saying...

[DeDukshyn]

I do not know that child so I can't say he is disabled, or spoilt. Can you provide evidence?

I do know this problem is called extreme emotional addiction - and it is extreme. compare to the "addictions" people had 50 or 100 years ago.

Emotional disease is not good a "first car" in my opinion. But poor parenting can make it inevitable.


"Are you hinting that im destructive ... " -- hehe - I wasn't thinking about you at all. :confused:

[TigaHawk]

I do not know that child so I can't say he is disabled, or spoilt. Can you provide evidence?

I do know this problem is called extreme emotional addiction - and it is extreme. compare to the "addictions" people had 50 or 100 years ago.

Emotional disease is not a "first car" in my opinion.


So you've gone from showing a video as evidance that computer games mess people up to - i dont know the kid i cant say he's disabled give me proof that that's why he's doing it. Please give me proof that video games did make him like that and not bad parenting and being spoilt rotten? :)

What does a car have to do with emotional diseas as well? Sorry im not getting you there. I did say however - a first car should be 2nd hand - as chances are whilst learning to drive you're going to have some accidents and mistakes and damage the car - you generally go for a car in alot better condition once you've learnt to drive and have your license...



In regards to china - i used them as an example because they're i guess the ground 0 of where "rehab" for internet addiction was born. The internet is one of the few way's to get free information - that's not controlled or censored - in china. A link to the outside world - and a getaway from the reality of life.

The same happens around the world tho. I mean.. America.. . your schools are more like prisons.... you are treated as a prisoner, you're having the rules of authority drummed into you... your continually faced with conflict while you're being indoctrinated with the system as it's changing your morals and thought process, and having to deal with how harsh children can be to eachother, parents and their financial situation as well.

Can we also look at stats about parenting? The world has changed from having the 1 person in the family being the breadwinner, and the other being the stay at home type to look after the kids - to both parents must work to bring in enough money to put food on the table - less time for the kids - hell parents want less time with kids especially after a long hellish day at work. With the drop of attention from parents - kids being kids has turned into kids having disabilities or mental problems that need to be fixed with medication. Then kids are just being unruly and problematic for parents - rather than just being and doing things that kid's should do.

How has that impacted today's youth? I wonder if this has anything to do with the greater problem? Or are we still looking at blaming computers and the internet? :)

[pabranno]

What disturbs me it the disconnect from nature: it seems to me the more digitally we immerse ourselves, the more alienated we become from the natural world around us.
We don't know the phase of the moon,
we don't read the weather in the clouds,
we cannot hear the animals/ birds,
and we cannot feel the Earth's heartbeat.

It disturbs me greatly.

Pamela

[Deborah (ahamkara)]

Have cut all digital media with the exception of the computer (which I limit :)
No TV or radio (paper subscription to newspaper)
Keep phone on silent and check messages/voice mail 2x per day.
Today I'm on computer a bit more because staying in with a cold.
I feel like an alien species.
As a culture, we have surrendered without a fight.
It disturbs me greatly, as well.

[TigaHawk]

I'd also like to say - i agree with what people are saying with how it's a disconnect from nature and moving towards seperating us further from eachother...

but the point im trying to make is - computers and "internet addictions" and the heavy emphasis of people chosing to spend a majority of time on them rather than what the majority of "normal" people do.... is a symptom of a bigger problem. The bigger problem being - the way the world is heading, and the systems in play that we currently adhere to. I think that the computer's and internet problem is a great distraction, to keep you focused on another problem rather than the underlying issue.

As someone whom definately qualifies as an internet addict, im putting in my side as im not sure anyone else here could or would.

And i'd just like to say - i love nature :) I have 2 cats, and i talk to them, they talk to me (not just meow's :P) and i know that this life is just a learning experience, and that we are all connected in way's that we possibly just cant understand or comprehend whilst in this vessle. Which is why i've been trying to make a point that computers and the internet are not the problem. They are a tool. If someone beats someone to death with a hammer, is it the hammer at fault or the person using the hammer? The person right! So then you shift your focus to the person and wonder - what happend to make them want to do that? So you step back and look at the bigger picture then go "oh.... thats why.."

[Selene]

TigaHawk, with much love and great respect, I think it is important to distinguish between mental/emotional issues which are normal/usual – we all know and experience these – and the nuclear-powered grip of addiction as a separate force.

Yes, addiction molests emotionally damaged souls with particular relish. They are easy targets. But addiction is something separate from the emotional illness itself. It compounds it; addiction makes emotional instability its feeding ground. It is a powerful control mechanism that feeds on the already weak.

All my best,

Selene

P.S. Please forgive me, but sleep calls here. All my best regards tonight,

[DeDukshyn]

I addressed bad parenting here: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?67694-Electronic-Heroin&p=788326&viewfull=1#post788326, maybe you missed it.

And yes I did post that video not actually knowing the people in it. I guess that is wrong ... :P :confused:

With all the editing and stuff this all got really weird for a lack of congruency -- edited. :P

[Nanoo Nanoo]

i think the kids are having a rehearsed hoax ... i mean take a look at what he does ... he is acting ..

[Mike Gorman]

Now this is disturbing, we are accepting a totalitarian society's view of what their kids 'should be doing'-a highly regulated country, China, despite the recent inroads of free enterprise,
we develop a wonderful resource which is what the Internet actually is. Unprecedented access to information, libraries of knowledge and literature, stimulating brain training programs ( Games)
and then we recoil when people actually use it to the exclusion of T.V, getting drunk, fighting...or whatever 'normal' social behavior we deem is appropriate. Our society is becoming far too
interested in what individuals decide to do with their own time...rather than viewing 'internet addiction' as a new mental health disorder we should take a step back and question this whole idea of
labeling individuals as 'bad machines' if they don't do what you think they should. To me this is an important point, our mental health authorities no longer have a therapeutic brief, it is one of
legitimizing Social control. The american catalog of disorders is now enormous-hundreds of mental diseases have suddenly come into being. This is about freedom, and regulating people, and demonizing
the Internet; if kids spend too much time playing games, discuss this and offer alternatives like blogging, more interactive choices-but for heaven's sake lets stop this descent into totalitarian regulation.

[TigaHawk]

Now this is disturbing, we are accepting a totalitarian society's view of what their kids 'should be doing'-a highly regulated country, China, despite the recent inroads of free enterprise,
we develop a wonderful resource which is what the Internet actually is. Unprecedented access to information, libraries of knowledge and literature, stimulating brain training programs ( Games)
and then we recoil when people actually use it to the exclusion of T.V, getting drunk, fighting...or whatever 'normal' social behavior we deem is appropriate. Our society is becoming far too
interested in what individuals decide to do with their own time...rather than viewing 'internet addiction' as a new mental health disorder we should take a step back and question this whole idea of
labeling individuals as 'bad machines' if they don't do what you think they should. To me this is an important point, our mental health authorities no longer have a therapeutic brief, it is one of
legitimizing Social control. The american catalog of disorders is now enormous-hundreds of mental diseases have suddenly come into being. This is about freedom, and regulating people, and demonizing
the Internet; if kids spend too much time playing games, discuss this and offer alternatives like blogging, more interactive choices-but for heaven's sake lets stop this descent into totalitarian regulation.

Thankyou for saying what I wanted better than I could :)

[donk]

There's a difference between what you are getting defensive about (using Internet excessively--but "responsibly"--to fill your social & entertainment needs) and the withdrawal symptoms exhibited when you take the iPod from the 6 year old (or 35 year old) that's been staring into for 8 hours.

And just because I point that out does NOT mean I approve of Chinese rehab centers, nor do I have any desire to be the thought control policing my children's every activity.

[DeDukshyn]

Now this is disturbing, we are accepting a totalitarian society's view of what their kids 'should be doing'-a highly regulated country, China, despite the recent inroads of free enterprise,
we develop a wonderful resource which is what the Internet actually is. Unprecedented access to information, libraries of knowledge and literature, stimulating brain training programs ( Games)
and then we recoil when people actually use it to the exclusion of T.V, getting drunk, fighting...or whatever 'normal' social behavior we deem is appropriate. Our society is becoming far too
interested in what individuals decide to do with their own time...rather than viewing 'internet addiction' as a new mental health disorder we should take a step back and question this whole idea of
labeling individuals as 'bad machines' if they don't do what you think they should. To me this is an important point, our mental health authorities no longer have a therapeutic brief, it is one of
legitimizing Social control. The american catalog of disorders is now enormous-hundreds of mental diseases have suddenly come into being. This is about freedom, and regulating people, and demonizing
the Internet; if kids spend too much time playing games, discuss this and offer alternatives like blogging, more interactive choices-but for heaven's sake lets stop this descent into totalitarian regulation.


Teachers are seeing disturbing trends in behavioural changes in our children, a lot of these are based around emotional addictions and sheer lack of emotional control and self control, likely being supported by poor parenting.

Should we care about any individual? Perhaps no as you or Tigahawk would have it. Should we care about new damaging trends being pushed upon us by money making corporations into the lives of the people who will be responsible for this planet in 40 years? Perhaps yes. From experiences I know addictions are transferrable - an addiction to games, internet or whatever, can easily turn into addictions to booze, drugs, sex, which are far more destructive addictions.

[DNA]

Fascinating vid. Does anyone else get the distinct impression the kid is hosting another entity? Certainly my guess would be an entity feeding off the child's emotion as he plays the game…. just a thought.

I think the kid knows he is being filmed and is acting a fool for attention.
How else are you going to go viral these days.

[Agape]

I think it's completely barbaric and unacceptable , wonder this has got out or was permitted to be filmed after all.
12 or 13 year olds forcibly drugged and treated like criminals because they became hooked to computer games ?

If this was filmed in EU, plenty of hands would rise up in defence of 'children's right' . It does not mean it is NOT happening here and elsewhere, yes it does,
it just that the medical system advanced from ways how it treated insane people in middle ages and then still in 50s ,
by brute force to something more humane or at least trying to approximate humane approach .

How can you show right from wrong to 13 year old by feeding them medicine by force and keeping them in restraints for something the adults themselves invented,
something they don't understand well enough ,
they've not mastered it .

The so called 'therapist' , head of the detention centre in military uniform ?

I know how drug addiction has been very hard problem to solve and how both therapists and patients complained of little or no success in the 'detox' programs,
there's been many sons n daughters of good families, friends of friends
who went through failure after failure, sold out their parents property,
no matter how many times they were admitted back to treatment, all failed .

At the end , the most successful therapeutic centres seem to be those whose nurses and therapist themselves have personal experience with drugs and found the 'magic key' in themselves , will to overcome the addiction.. since they can emphasise with the patients ,
rather than cool distant white coats who are and were always 'clear n clean' but in fact are much weaker than many of the 'fallen angels' they're trying to lift up.


I suggest it'd be a similar therapeutic approach to help these computer-hooked youngsters,
many could become successful programmers - and you'd see IF they'd really want to spend so many hours at the screen if it was their job.

They could be guided, shown through the process of the game .. till they find the success clue to control it by their own will which itself is the principle of computering, man vs machine or is it not ?

The detention centre is not of more help than those poor uneducated parents who simply fail to understand anything about computers and the reasoning of the kids who fail for them , using brute force ,
yes seen it on youtube before, father who broke his daughters laptop because she wrote bad tweet about him.


:cool:

[DeDukshyn]

I think it's completely barbaric and unacceptable , wonder this has got out or was permitted to be filmed after all.
12 or 13 year olds forcibly drugged and treated like criminals because they became hooked to computer games ?

If this was filmed in EU, plenty of hands would rise up in defence of 'children's right' . It does not mean it is NOT happening here and elsewhere, yes it does,
it just that the medical system advanced from ways how it treated insane people in middle ages and then still in 50s ,
by brute force to something more humane or at least trying to approximate humane approach .

How can you show right from wrong to 13 year old by feeding them medicine by force and keeping them in restraints for something the adults themselves invented,
something they don't understand well enough ,
they've not mastered it .

The so called 'therapist' , head of the detention centre in military uniform ?

I know how drug addiction has been very hard problem to solve and how both therapists and patients complained of little or no success in the 'detox' programs,
there's been many sons n daughters of good families, friends of friends
who went through failure after failure, sold out their parents property,
no matter how many times they were admitted back to treatment, all failed .

At the end , the most successful therapeutic centres seem to be those whose nurses and therapist themselves have personal experience with drugs and found the 'magic key' in themselves , will to overcome the addiction.. since they can emphasise with the patients ,
rather than cool distant white coats who are and were always 'clear n clean' but in fact are much weaker than many of the 'fallen angels' they're trying to lift up.


I suggest it'd be a similar therapeutic approach to help these computer-hooked youngsters,
many could become successful programmers - and you'd see IF they'd really want to spend so many hours at the screen if it was their job.

They could be guided, shown through the process of the game .. till they find the success clue to control it by their own will which itself is the principle of computering, man vs machine or is it not ?

The detention centre is not of more help than those poor uneducated parents who simply fail to understand anything about computers and the reasoning of the kids who fail for them , using brute force ,
yes seen it on youtube before, father who broke his daughters laptop because she wrote bad tweet about him.


:cool:

I think we can all agree that the best approach to avoid getting destructively addicted is prevention - you can't address all cases this way, but proper parenting certainly can create an individual who can make choices that are less self destructive.

Somewhere along the way in this thread, "using a computer" and "being extremely addicted" ended up forced into the same pile -- which of course we all know it is not.

[Agape]

I think we can all agree that the best approach to avoid getting destructively addicted is prevention - you can't address all cases this way, but proper parenting certainly can create an individual who can make choices that are less self destructive.

Somewhere along the way in this thread, "using a computer" and "being extremely addicted" ended up forced into the same pile -- which of course we all know it is not.

Yes I agree this is very individual experience .. and generalisation isn't overly helpful.

I don't have much tendency to addictive behaviour at all ( not a self appraisal , may have to do with genotype ) except for love perhaps but that's not a matter of addiction.
And good luck for me, I have no experience with parenting so I'm easily attackable on this matter however ..

from a perspective of advisor and teacher to others, I can observe that parenting without prior experience in matters of importance for the child becomes very difficult if not impossible.
In old times, the 'elders' were so respected and called not only for their age but for their wisdom and experience . They could teach by knowledge and example,
if not them , someone in the community knew better .

Young people in our sort of culture often miss such example and experience in their elders , even in schools , or colleges, classrooms are overcrowded , there's seldom space for individual guidance. Children are thrown to world full of innovations to deal with , without good guidance, with weak moral grounds to stand on,

yes some are good enough and can stand the pressure and become shining stars on their heavens ..

the rest , I think, I'm afraid are growing up more troubled than ever . Lost in world full of names , numbers, game characters , movie heroes ..


But who am I to say it's all going the wrong way . Right ?



:grouphug: