Internet Addiction Gets Your Out Of The Military?

Culture

from the amazing dept

Many stories about “internet addiction” have been based on some random psychologist who was mostly trying to drum up some new (and potentially lucrative) business. However, people continue to take it seriously. The latest, amazingly enough, is that the Finnish military is letting people get out of military service if they’re addicted to the internet. Apparently “young men miss their computers too much to cope with their compulsory six months in the forces.” However, the Commander-Captain of conscription doesn’t seem to have much of a problem with young men staying home and playing games instead of serving their country: “For people who play (Internet) games all night and don’t have any friends, don’t have any hobbies, to come into the army is a very big shock.” Of course, they’re not completely out of it: “They get sent home for three years and after that they have to come back and we ask if they are OK … they will have had time to grow up.” I wonder if the cases of “internet addiction” will increase, now that kids know they can skip out on service and play games instead. Of course, with the growth of wireless technologies and and portable computing, maybe they just need to outfit all these new soldiers with some of those new “handtop” computers and a 3G connection card, and the problem will be solved.