Internet Addiction Camps: Digital Detox Gets Real In US and China

Image: By Fuzheado [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

In a span of 24 hours, The New York Times published two articles regarding people going to great lengths to disconnect from technology or to undergo digital detox. “Electroshock Therapy for Internet Addicts: China Vows to End It” focuses on the Addiction Treatment Center in China where more than 6,000 internet addicts have been disconnected from the internet and have been treated with electroshock — or electroconvulsive — therapy.

The other article was the obituary for Levi Felix, the 32-year-old who co-founded Digital Detox, a group that hosts retreats and camps to help people find a balance online and off. He once said, “I’d like to see more people looking into people’s face instead of looking in their screens.” Felix died of a brain tumor.