It seems that in Finland people who are placed in the compulsory military service can get sent home for a few years if diagnosed to have ‘internet addiction’. The diagnosis seems to fall on those young men who before being conscripted (drafted) didn’t have much real world social lives, but were quiet types who would stay up all night playing online games and chatting with ‘virtual friends’, and then were suddenly yanked away from that life and forced into a real world they weren’t prepared for (hmm, sounds like me, hehe).
They get a few years to go home and ‘grow up’ but have to come back and finish their service.
Man, if only I could use that excuse to get me out of things, like, oh I dunno, being an adult and having a job. “I’m sorry, I just can’t take all this, I’m addicted to the internet… can I go home now?” 🙂
-r-