Korean Addiction Problems
A recent case study presented in the American Journal of Psychiatry (AJP)
indicates that South Korea has the highest incidents in the world of
demonstrated Internet addictions. All over the world the Internet is offering
localized content specifically targeted at citizens and with an increasing
number of activities available only through the World Wide Web. Among these
activities are online casinos gambling, gaming, and social networking sites. Dr.
Jerald Block is a psychiatrist currently based out of Portland, Oregon and
working at the Oregon Health and Science University. His case study into South
Korean Internet addiction found that though the problem was an obvious major
concern for the country, other countries may also have high levels of internet
addicts without any way to gather true statistics because addicts more often
surf the internet in private settings in the U.S.
Block notes that the type of sites that Internet gambling addicts gravitate
toward vary from pornography, to online casinos gambling, to internet gaming
sites. "In Korea, it seems to be primarily gaming sites. In America, it seems to
be Facebook. It's porn, it's games, it's gambling, it's chatting with friends.
All these things existed before, but now they're a lot easier," Block emphasizes
in the editorial in the AJP.
The problem with Internet addiction, (to gaming and online casinos sites) is a
very real and immediate concern in South Korea where the nation has ten
identifiable cases of deaths from Internet addiction. Addicts will sit at
Internet café’s and other locations for so long – going without physical
activity for very long stretches, that it causes blood clots. Other negative
effects of online Internet addiction include addicts dropping out of school,
quitting jobs, ending relationships – all of this as a way to increase the
amount of time an addicted individual is able to spend on the Internet surfing
the Web or playing at the online casinos. |