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But Is There a Boot Camp for Web Workaholics?

November 18th, 2007 (11:22am) Anne Zelenka 4 Comments

The New York Times covers Korean boot camps designed to combat web obsession, aimed at those whose usage of the web borders on addiction. Here are the alleged signs of such addiction:

[An] inability to stop themselves from using computers, rising levels of tolerance that drive them to seek ever longer sessions online, and withdrawal symptoms like anger and craving when prevented from logging on.

That sounds like a web worker I know. Fortunately, no one has ever died from exhaustion due to making too many VoIP calls in one sitting.

Comments (4)

  • Well, I should qualify that by I don’t know if anyone _really_ has in the way that many of these young men allegedly have. If I find out a plausible explanation I’ll let you know. ;)

    t@ dji

    Tony Hung12:44 PM on November 18, 2007 Reply

  • Tony: when I read that article in the Times I was wondering to myself, “has anyone really died from web exhaustion?” Seems unlikely!

    Anne Zelenka12:58 PM on November 18, 2007 Reply

  • There are times when I just can’t stop from waiting for some clients to reply to my emails. And while waiting I’d write a blog post or bloghop or start with some project plans. While doing these, I tend to forget about time that I’d only be alerted that I’ve overstayed in front of my PC doing web stuff when the sun starts to rise.

    This can cause stress at times since I even lose sleep while doing some web work. And I won’t wonder if people like me can suffer from web overfatigue because I feel it at times.

    And you know how fatal stress can be…

    Alfa2:20 PM on November 18, 2007 Reply

  • Hi Alfa,

    The funny thing is that in spite of what pop culture gurus might say, “stress” isn’t something that will lead to a definite medical problem over a short period of time. And unless you’re older with other medical conditions (hypertension, artherosclerosis, coronary disease), its something that will feel unpleasant, but is unlikely to kill you (right away).

    Tony Hung3:06 PM on November 18, 2007 Reply

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