Internet addiction in Korea and China
Friday, January 15th, 2010We can fairly say that when we are exploring new psychological or behavioral problems, people are not all believing that the problem are as severe as it is said. One of those problems is Internet Addiction. I have seen for the last 10 years that internet addiction is real. I have also seen that Internet Addiction is affecting more people than I suspected in the beginning, around 8-11% of Internet users a average number studies are showing. Most talked about problem is Internet game addiction and somehow it seems that studies from Korea e.g are showing higher rates of addiction. The reason might come from the fact in Korea the technology has emerge faster and Beckham of Korea the heroes are not athletic figures. In Korea they are players of Massive Multiplayer Online Games as Star Craft similar to probably the most famous one World of Warcraft played by more than 10 million people in the world. In China the problem is also widely known and we heard stories of camps that seems to be like prison, treating youths with Internet Addiction. The Chinese have even said that Internet Addiction is affecting 80% of youths according to the brochure form the Qihang camp. I am not sure if that is true but the facts remains we are seeing a rising problem we are having hard time treating both in the west and the east. Maybe seeing the fans gathering at some Wembley like football field to see their favorite player compete in a online massive multplayer game is some foresight into the future in Europe and USA.
Bjorn Hardarson
Clinical psychologist
CEO of Responsible Surfing
