Web addiction excuses conscripts

[ralphwiggum 6]

.

http://www.cnn.com/2004....ex.html

Quote[/b] ]HELSINKI, Finland (Reuters) -- A number of Finnish conscripts have been excused their full term of military service because they are addicted to the Internet, the Finnish Defence Forces said on 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.

[kegetys 2]

Too bad it propably isn't a reason enough to get a full exemption(?) from service, but only to postpone it. Though not that I personally care, I'm already spending my total of three year postponement for other reasons, to hopefully get an exemption in 2005.

[SpeedyDonkey 0]

And you tell me this after i changed my nationality to Swedish and all  

[Gollum1 0]

Haha, nerds.

I'm kind of surprised by this whole affair though.

[DracoPaladore 0]

Quote[/b] ]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

Life sucks, get over it. I doubt Internet Addiction is a good excuse just to postpone service.

What do you think that person will do during that postponement? Work on his addiction? Nah, he'll be playing Everquest complaining on how "the man" is after him.

[theavonlady 2]

Haha, nerds.

Little SISIs.

[soul_assassin 1723]

well we all like Flashpoint, must mean we all like playin the army. Why WOULDNT u wanna go to the army? I for one cant wait till i join.

[bn880 5]

Why not? Because the army is not fun and games, it's serious training, and it aint comfy like playing OFP, plus some exercises end in serious injury or death. And if you're going to the Russian army, I especially doubt it will be much fun.

But hey, having a good mentality will probably help.

[ran 0]

well we all like Flashpoint, must mean we all like playin the army. Why WOULDNT u wanna go to the army? I for one cant wait till i join.

nieheheheheheh

[Donnervogel 0]

well we all like Flashpoint, must mean we all like playin the army. Why WOULDNT u wanna go to the army? I for one cant wait till i join.

games =! rl

I hate the army. Hell the only fun part was shooting. But it took us 3 weeks of marching and stuff until we first were allowed to look at a rifle. And then towards the end of training there was an excercise with real ammo and lucky me got shot in the arm. Army sucks big ass.

[EiZei 0]

well we all like Flashpoint, must mean we all like playin the army. Why WOULDNT u wanna go to the army? I for one cant wait till i join.

Peasoup, asshole NCOs, peasoup, asshole squadmates, shit pay, possible broken up relationships, even more peasoup and forest camping with smelly late teenagers. And at least some can choose if they want to join or not.

[red oct 2]

which countries in europe both in east and west still have conscription? which ones are planning on ending manditory military enlistment?

edit: peasoup doesnt sound too bad especially in a cold winter in Finland definitly sounds better than S.O.S. ... they do serve it hot right?

[EiZei 0]

which countries in europe both in east and west still have conscription? which ones are planning on ending manditory military enlistment?

Austria, Finland, Germany, Greece, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey AFAIK.

[Donnervogel 0]

which countries in europe both in east and west still have conscription? which ones are planning on ending manditory military enlistment?

Switzerland has conscript service. If you declare yourself pacifist and go trough some psychological testing and stuff you can do "civil service" though. That can be anything from wiping the butts of old people to cleaning up forrest in regions where noone wants to go to ;) There are some talks about making a professional army without conscript service but it's very unlikely to happen anytime soon.

[red oct 2]

Sweden has conscription? i never would have thought that of all counties Sweden would have still required young people to give some of their time in the military. are they planning on ending it. i know Germany is supposed to stop somewhere in 2008.

[EiZei 0]

Sweden has conscription?  i never would have thought that of all counties Sweden would have still required young people to give some of their time in the military. are they planning on ending it. i know Germany is supposed to stop somewhere in 2008.

Countries of this kind of population can hardly end conscription in this situtation. Heard that Sweden was downsizing their armed forces though.

[the_shadow 0]

yeah, we are cutting with a chainsaw...

as it looks now, around 50% will go before 2008 (and 50% is ALOT looking at what we have now)

but that is really to be seen during next month when the governement will make their decision.. (and counting 2/3 of the governemental parties want the military to just disapear makes it likely to be cut that much)

anyway, we do have conscript service for 7.5, 10, 12 or 15 months, but the supreme commander hade some nice ideas...

[Nemesis6 0]

Conscription, or vćrnepligt, is no longer mandatory as of March 2005(I think it's in march) in Denmark.

Speaking of being a nerd, I actually thought this thread read "Web addAction excuses conscripts" :P

[feersum.endjinn 6]

"Internet addiction" is not only reason in these cases, usually they've got shitload of other problems too. Mostly these are somewhat mental cases, kids with no social life at all and who've never left home since someone has always taken care of everything.

Not that Finnish army policies do makes any sense however, my friend had his application to be exempted from service denied at first even though he had just had his leg amputated because of cancer.

[Edge 2]

Quote[/b] ]"Internet addiction" is not only reason in these cases, usually they've got shitload of other problems too. Mostly these are somewhat mental cases, kids with no social life at all and who've never left home since someone has always taken care of everything.

...maybe they should be placed in military hospitals with FDF Mod as a kinda interim therapy

IMO this all is caused by the fact that in Finland these "anti-social bandwidth hoggers" (Kegetys NOT meant here, but I love the term) are able to buy their food via internet instead of being forced to even go out

Quote[/b] ]Not that Finnish army policies do makes any sense however, my friend had his application to be exempted from service denied at first even though he had just had his leg amputated because of cancer.

...reminds me of a ill-famed military doctor at our District HQ (responsible for conscripts' health check), who almost found a one-legged guy as "able to serve with certain restrictions" because the first sheet of his health record was all about his bad eyes and the fact he's one-legged was mentioned on the next sheet. Seems there must be some international cooperation of these people...

[EiZei 0]

Quote[/b] ]"Internet addiction" is not only reason in these cases, usually they've got shitload of other problems too. Mostly these are somewhat mental cases, kids with no social life at all and who've never left home since someone has always taken care of everything.

...maybe they should be placed in military hospitals with FDF Mod as a kinda interim therapy

IMO this all is caused by the fact that in Finland these "anti-social bandwidth hoggers" (Kegetys NOT meant here, but I love the term) are able to buy their food via internet instead of being forced to even go out

Dont know what you are talking about. At least I have not heard about anyone ordering food via internet, would be way too expensive especially for the kind of people we are talking about.

[Gollum1 0]

Quote[/b] ]"Internet addiction" is not only reason in these cases, usually they've got shitload of other problems too. Mostly these are somewhat mental cases, kids with no social life at all and who've never left home since someone has always taken care of everything.

...maybe they should be placed in military hospitals with FDF Mod as a kinda interim therapy

IMO this all is caused by the fact that in Finland these "anti-social bandwidth hoggers" (Kegetys NOT meant here, but I love the term) are able to buy their food via internet instead of being forced to even go out

Dont know what you are talking about. At least I have not heard about anyone ordering food via internet, would be way too expensive especially for the kind of people we are talking about.

I don't know how I would go about ordering food on the Internet either and never heard of anyone who would have done it.

[Longinius 1]

There used to be this pizzeria where I lived before that took email orders for home delivered pizza. Does that count?

Also, my mother has some foreign site she visits to order special canned and pickled goods and such. She gets it delivered in a package. She could have it delivered right to the door if she wanted to, but that costs extra shipping.

[DarkLight 0]

"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.

Gotta love this part

[SpeedyDonkey 0]

You can order food here in Sweden. It’s meant to be used by everyone that wants to. How ever I think that the only ones really having use of it is disabled people that may have difficulties getting to a grocery store and so on.

II have never tried it myself.