Wired's got a great article on internet/gaming addiction and those rehab centers in China you keep hearing about, specifically a case about a boy who went there (who wasn't even playing that much), and died 14 hours later. He was hit so hard by a wooden chair, the chair leg broke. Read it, it's very interesting and raises the questions on how these "addictions" should be "treated", and whether or not we should call these addictions or rather a monumental waste of time on a computer.
FUCK I typed obsessed wrong in the title.

But... but... I'm not addicted to the internet, it's just that most of my whole fucking life is either on the web (work, keeping in touch with people) or closely connected to it. I can't not be addicted to life. D:

Hmm, wonder if perhaps they're taking the tough love thing a bit too far. That or whether the kid in question expressed some sort of wish for basic human rights, perhaps the right not to be beaten to death with a chair...
Sounds like that chinese place will cure it if you are...

China. :-/

fixed a typo for you

nothing like a story from china to get your veins filled with RAGE in the morning.

just replace that with an evening

Gotta love the MMO's :)
Heck there were some kiddos back in the day who offed themselves because of EverCrack!

A misconception of addiction is that addiction is spending a lot of time on stuff. It isn't!
Addiction is when you have psychological problems with being away from the thing you are addicted to. I spend almost my whole time on internet but I don't think I'm addicted because it's ok for me, if there's something interesting, to go out into town or so or do some travel for it.
On the other hand, people who spend only 1 or two hours per week on internet but have real problems when that is taken away are addicted.
I would say I'm addicted to love and chess (in that order) because I really have problems if I don't get one of these. However, I only need to care about love since for chess - well, a good brain is enough for that! Love, on the other hand, is something powerful but also fragile - and at the same time unbreakable -, and I don't think I'm wrong that most people who think they feel love never have felt it at all, or only parts of it.
Back to topic, however, people can get addicted to almost everything, but not everything is marked as being ill. Yes, I'm addicted to oxyd - everyone is - but it's normal! Addiction to cigarettes is not normal because it is not important for survival. Etc.

Thats not an addiction, thats an an admirable commitment to natural selection, if only more stupid people were so dedicated

That is really sad if you actually read the whole thing through. The totalitarian government was restricting access to information across the globe and now people are in a fear-induced craze. This line is what gets me:
“He didn’t smoke, he didn’t drink. The Internet was probably his way to vent the pressure on him,” he says, staring at his feet. “We didn’t know that then. But we know that now. It wasn’t really an addiction. It was his way out of the pressure of being a student.”
His parents were actually scared into taking that boy into the camp from media and news about crazy WoW players. It's a new H1N1 type of scare that's only in China. I hope it doesn't get any more out of hand because Chinese are known for using simple cruel tactics in anything they do over humane treatments, and fake diseases are something that has been taken too far.

Agreed.

I hope other countries do not get any idea's about starting camps like these. If people worried about those who are "addictied" to technology then they should gently talk and communicate with them to understand that individual and find out what is going on.
Talk, Emphasize, listen.

There is one in Seattle. But I'm pretty sure they don't beat you to submission.