In Korea, a Boot Camp Cure for Web Obsession – New York Times

This is awesome, but I think that it would be great for all kids. Get out and do fun activities. This isn’t treatment, it’s camp!

Now, I don’t want to be too glib about this. I agree that it’s a serious issues and the participants here are extreme cases that need extreme interventions. This might be a good way to break them down and build them up, but it’s not going to help them to live is a society of computers, where every basic task they have to complete is mediated by a computer (and likely the Internet).

From the picture here, it’s pretty obvious that this is not in Seoul. I’d love to see grass in Seoul 🙂 That’s the biggest problem with this approach. When they go back to the city, what should they do?

These kids (at least those in K-12) have to time to go hiking, though the mountains surround Seoul. They are scheduled to within an inch of their lives. The “Internet” here mostly refers to games that they play after those scheduled times (mostly at night) and usually take away from their sleep time. There’s no time to do anything that is more than a short distance from home.

I suggest a program that gives them alternatives that can be done given those boundaries (because those boundaries aren’t going to be taken down any time soon). Both outdoor and indoor activities, both group and individual activities. If this can be done, it’s more likely to last.

This program is just another hagwon (private institute program) that promises cures and provides only temporary relief of symptoms. When they get back to their real lives, they’ll head straight to their computers to post their pictures, update their mini-homepys (Cyworld home page), and let their friend know exactly what they’ve been up to in hours of chat conversations.