A terrifying insight at how China deals with computer addicted teenagers
A terrifying insight at how China deals with computer addicted teenagers
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A terrifying insight at how China deals with computer addicted teenagers
It concerns me how much more I sympathized with the teenagers that felt betrayed versus the parents & staff that see a legitimate addiction.
I got hooked into this, great post. Given how much China seems to able to control what content about itself is seen by the rest of the world, I’m surprised they let the BBC into a military-run facility with what seems like unlimited access & full disclosure. The dialogue that happened between “Nicky” and his parents, starting with the phone call at around the 14:37 mark and then the face-to-face family session, was filled with such pure, raw expressions of emotions from both sides. I’m curious about their claim of a 70% ‘success’ rate, and what they consider to be a success.
I should probably send myself to one of these camps… i’m on here way too much
Yeah, when you’re not going to school, work and not taking care of hygiene this place doesn’t seem like a bad place to be in.
Where are the teenage girls… I think there is some serious sexism going on here.
Some of these kids deserve it. 10+ hours a day playing games, not going to school, not eating, no hygiene? Toss em in a fucking prison
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China never ceases to amaze me.
Isn’t this somehow unethical? I’m sure this violates some human rights law somewhere..
Wow, great doc. The end though kind of made me laugh. The dad who hired the virtual assassin to kill of his sons avatars. Pretty genius move.
Taiwan numbah 1
I used to work at a dual diagnosis treatment center for teenagers. This isn’t so much different from what they went through. I even had a coworker who had two kids at the facility before I worked there who were sent because they were addicted to WoW. Any pleasure giving activity can be addictive (and some pain giving ones as well). Shit, I even used games (and later drugs) as a way to deal with life when I was a teenager. Anyway, saw many similar things working as a (primarily) drug counselor.
edit: watching the kid at around 52 minutes, you can see there is clearly something going on with his dad and probably uses games as an escape. You’d have kids tell you the shit their parents did to them but be in a session with the parent and not really be able to bring it up because the parent can’t be honest enough to deal with what THEY have done. It’s fucked.
Is it bad that I’m watching this in bed on my phone? Like I usually do every night?
I think public consensus in China is that addiction is a selfish choice, rather than a disease. A lot of times you see non-violent addicts in asia being treated like criminals.
I’m gonna put on my tin foil hat for a second here. China is pretty big into censorship, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this was a way to sow the seeds of doubt concerning the internet. Teach the people that the too much exposure to the internet is bad for you, and they won’t look to it as a source of information.
That being said, this is just my initial impression. I don’t have time to watch the whole doc at the moment, I’ve only seen the first few minutes.
I’m a 19 year old NEET and I spend all day on my computer. I need this.
The first thing you have to understand is that Chinese mothers are CRAZY! They can’t help it. It has been bread into them.
Look at these addicts! Doing a thing we didn’t do at their age! We must fix them! Make them like us! The world needs war, laborers, and criminals! Not passive internet users! Give them the medicine!
Edit: I just got to the part where they talk about how the socializing part of their brains have stopped developing from video game usage…
There’s a reason I wanted to be the one to read out loud in school. Because there were a plethora of stuttering stanleys that couldn’t get the job done.
There’s a reason I’ve always got the job after an interview.
There’s a reason I can strike up a conversation with any random individual and either make them laugh, or relate to them in some way.
This reason isn’t only due to video games, but being 14-16 years old, and guiding a 40 man raid in vanilla WoW certainly helps with the entire social maturity thing.
I’m obviously bias here, but these people are so out of touch it’s terrifying. Get a grip. Show them compassion and love, not structure and discipline. The first two plant the seed for the latter two. Fucking idiots.
Edit 2: Now I’ve come to the part where the father of “Hacker” talks about how there is 0 communication. Followed almost immediately with a story about how he’s very strict/rough. He beats him. He even pulled a knife on him… Not to hurt him… no no no THAT would be crazy! Just scare him a little. Instill some fear in the young mans heart. Yah know… DAD STUFF… HAHAAHAHAHA, I’m quickly realizing this isn’t a documentary about internet addicts. But rather a documentary about terrible/abusive parents.
Edit 3: I realize it’s only been 2 downvotes, but you 2 people really need to reevaluate your priories or your kids will end up the same way. Saying you need to show your kids love and compassion isn’t a thing that can be argued against, and it’s really scary knowing the majority of individuals think that way. Hence the over abundance of internet addiction spreading world wide. Learn to think for yourself and not react to emotional responses.
The dude crying at the start got me pretty good. Seems harsh punishment for something I do daily. Poor kid.
Cos you be on dat phone
Yea, I’m on reddit, I don’t come here with my attention span prepped for hour long videos
Kind of ironic how the main guy talks about addiction and it being like heroin and bad for you and what happens at 57:39 they all smoke cigarettes.
Horrible parenting and failed educational system.
Apparently abuse is also rampant in these boot camps.
I don’t really understand how their isolation therapy is supposed to help anyone. If these teenagers have an illness, it’s a little jarring to see how these patients are treated. It honestly feels more punitive than rehabilitative.
Got me thinking… Could I last a week without going on a computer while not a work? I dont think I can….. Fuck me, where do I sign up?
From a middle aged hardcore gamer those kids lives were fucked way before they got into gaming. I was bullied, outcast, neglected, ignored by my parents who are still to this day addicted to work and project all of their problems onto me as being the failure and cause of their problems. I believed it until my mom told me that my being a failure caused her to have a heart attack. “failure” of course being subjective. Then I realized it was all just a crock. Its ok for society to misunderstand and refuse to accept us, it is not okay for them to try and control our lives or “fix us”. There is nothing wrong with us.
Gaming saved my life. It gave me a place to socialize when I had none, a place to hang with people like me who didnt have perfect little lives. It gave me a place to learn and grow without the violence and constant torture that existed in real life. I wouldn’t have just “figured it out” without the gaming community and a place to go I would have never had the successes I have had or become the person I am today.
Its so transparent to see the opportunists descending upon the youth to profit off of dysfunctional families and creating a target in the young gamers. This shit is really scary. These kids have it bad enough without being reinforced by authority figures that they are weird, crazy, out of control, etc.
Wonder how many companies are profiting off of this?
Fucking sad, all around. I was surprised though at 55:25 when Tao is in the group session with parents. I think he actually nails it on the head, saying that kids will abuse games beyond a normal amount because it’s the only way they can feel connected with others and get a sense of accomplishment or self-worth.
But if the administrators have the capacity to recognize this issue, they’re doing a shitty job of helping these kids. The whole program seems centered around punishment. Why not try to teach the kids some skills or activities that they’ll enjoy, that they could use in day to day life to help others and feel good about themselves? Nah, let’s do push-ups, march and sing songs about Chinese soldiers conquering the world.
What meds are they giving them? i mean, is there a suboxone for the interwebs?
Yeah, when your country is fucking repressed so much. What can your teens do?
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51:47 Says it all and is a common problem in the west as well. You are supposed to bring a child into this world and love it unconditionally. It doesn’t ask to be born, this is not a two way agreement and so you take on an enormous responsibility.
What you see here is a man who has lost his son for good. “You used to be my Dad, Now you’re just a man who thinks i owe him something”
If you can see and acknowledge that parenting is a near impossible task, its takes a certain amount of humility to say “i don’t think i could do it, therefore i don’t want to bring a child into this world” and it frustrates me that more people don’t have the same attitude.
To have the child anyway, fail, and then refuse to hold anyone but yourself to blame, is moral destitution on a level i struggle to parse.
Fuck that shit. No one should be subjected to bootcamp like conditions without volunteering for it. I think the same goes for prisons and any other rehabilitation center. Fuck that shit, that’s not a way to live life.
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Just what would happen if the typical anti-technology old bags actually had their way.
Commenting to save for later. Got 15 minutes in and seemed interesting.
My biggest problem with being away from the computer is I’ve forgotten what to do with myself lol. You forget how to fill your day with other things and balance it out.
What I’d like to do is just go live with a person who seen to be living a balanced life and do what they do for awhile. Just get out of my routine and see how other people balance their day out.
push ups at 40:40 are priceless
Strong punishment bread strong men. It is know. in Asia for centuries.
china is so fucking backwards
Cool documentary. Anyone for a game of CS? I need friends.
This just reminds me of the. Ok Ready Player One.
Yeah horrible, specialy when compared to their neighbors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UksbnbWjbPs
You don’t get addicted to video games, you become addicted to detaching from real life. It’s either internet, games, books, work or drugs.
You don’t cure it with military training, you cure it by making these kids life better so they don’t have to escape from it anymore.
Best anime ever
oh?
These kind of boot camps are notorious for being horrendous for teens. 10 day isolation, removal of bed linens, unregulated meds, and psychological torture really. This school may be the best school out there. they actually include parents in therapy sessions.
But this could get so bad. Parents okaying the beatings of their kids. US prison level punishments… damn. Its sad.
why not take the desire (engage in a different reality through gaming) and utilize it for a better purpose (model building for a better society, running economic scenarios, solving larger food issues etc).
I hope these places don’t take off or we will hear stories of crazy abuse, murders, suicides, and lots of other bullshit.
all i know, is that if my parents had ever done something like this, and sent me to a place like that, i would have threatened to stay as long as possible, and really hit my parents in their savings. they could either lose it all, or let me out.
I’m so grateful to live in a society that actively encourages and nurtures addictions instead. How dare those Chinese try to instill any sense of discipline in their youth.