[Paleopsych] Reuters: Web Addiction Gets Conscripts Out of Army

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Wed Aug 4 23:08:05 UTC 2004


Web Addiction Gets Conscripts Out of Army
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&u=/nm/20040803/od_nm/odd_finland_internet_dc&printer=1
4.8.3, 10:20 AM ET

[I certainly  understand what this addiction is like! Sometimes, I just 
get hooked on moving files around in my computer, even as I realize that 
were my hard disk to crash (as happened twice), there's very little I 
would miss. And as it happened, that very little was backed up to half a 
dozen floppies. Nowadays, I have an external hard drive.]

    HELSINKI (Reuters) - A number of Finnish conscripts have been excused
    their full term of military service because they are addicted to the
    Internet, the Finnish Defense Forces said Tuesday.

    Doctors have found the young men miss their computers too much to cope
    with their compulsory six months in the forces.

    "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," said Commander-Captain Jyrki Kivela at the military
    conscription unit.

    "Some of (the conscripts) go to the doctor and say they can't stay.
    Sometimes, the doctors have said they have an Internet addiction,"
    Kivela said.

    There are no official figures for the Internet addict dropout rate.

    "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," Kivela said.

    Finland called up 26,500 men in 2003, nine percent of whom were
    relieved of duty for medical reasons.

    However, the Internet drop-outs have not dented national pride in
    "sisu," a Finnish quality of being tough and resilient.

    "We are very proud of our Finnish men. Eight-two percent of all
    Finnish men manage their whole military service," Kivela said.



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