I've written about so-called "nature deficit disorder" and the fact that old-fashioned summer camps – classic overnight camps that focus on nature and the outdoors – are becoming an endangered species. Lots of kids don't want to trade their iPods for backpacks anymore. And summer itself is something of a fading concept as we move to year-round schools. But a story in The New York Times shows that South Korea may be a trendsetter: They've created what might be the world's first camp designed to save youngsters who are addicted to computers and computer games: the Jump Up Internet Rescue School. South Korea is the world's most-wired country. But that appears to be leading to some problems: ... [N]o other country has so fully embraced the Internet. Ninety percent of homes connect to cheap, high-speed broadband, online gaming is a professional sport, and social life for the young revolves around the "PC bang," dim Internet parlors that sit on practically every street corner. But such ready access to the Web has come at a price as legions of obsessed users find that they cannot tear themselves away from their computer screens. Compulsive Internet use has been identified as a mental health issue in other countries, including the United States. However, it may be a particularly acute problem in South Korea because of the country's nearly universal Internet access. It has become a national issue here in recent years, as users started dropping dead from exhaustion after playing online games for days on end. A growing number of students have skipped school to stay online, shockingly self-destructive behavior in this intensely competitive society. The 12-day boot camp is designed to get kids reconnected with the real world: their bodies, other people, nature. The bootcampers run military-style obstacle courses and do drills. They also have to pull the plug on their wired lives: During a session, participants live at the camp, where they are denied computer use and allowed only one hour of cellphone calls a day, to prevent them from playing online games via the phone. They also follow a rigorous regimen of physical exercise and group activities, like horseback riding, aimed at building emotional connections to the real world and weakening those with the virtual one. "It is most important to provide them experience of a lifestyle without the Internet," said Lee Yun-hee, a counselor. "Young Koreans don't know what this is like." It seems to me that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Maybe if more people send their kids to old-school camp in the first place Internet obsessions might be mitigated later on. I'm mean, regular summer camp sounds a lot better than boot camp right? And getting kids connected with nature early might give them something to fall back on if they require "rescue" later on. Otherwise, Internet addiction boot camps might become a trend in this country.
The boot-camp cure for Internet addiction
I've written about so-called "nature deficit disorder" and the fact that old-fashioned summer camps – classic overnight camps that focus on nature and the outdoors – are becoming an endangered species. Lots of kids don't want to trade their iPods for backpacks anymore. And summer itself is something of a fading concept as we move to year-round schools. But a story in The New York Times shows that South Korea may be a trendsetter: They've created what might be the world's first camp designed to save youngsters who are addicted to computers and computer games: the Jump Up Internet Rescue School.
I've written about so-called "nature deficit disorder" and the fact that old-fashioned summer camps – classic overnight camps that focus on nature and the outdoors – are becoming an endangered species. Lots of kids don't want to trade their iPods for backpacks anymore. And summer itself is something of a fading concept as we move to year-round schools. But a story in The New York Times shows that South Korea may be a trendsetter: They've created what might be the world's first camp designed to save youngsters who are addicted to computers and computer games: the Jump Up Internet Rescue School.
