China Web Junkies

I watched this short video on the NYTimes this week. It is a full 90 minute documentary that So many conversations to be hae around this video. These kids are in a treatment facility for internet addicition, aka electronic heroin. Just watch it.

This is the NYTimes link. It is a little longer and worth the watch. http://nyti.ms/1kOoRUt

Here is a short clip and the only one I found that I could embed.

Web Junkie Trailer from Dogwoof Documentary on Vimeo.

Comments (Archived):

falicon Jan 21, 2014

Wow.Do you know where I can get to a copy of the full documentary? Just watched the Times one you linked to and can’t say anything but Wow.
1. Gotham Gal Jan 21, 2014
  
  My guess is that the movie will be picked up and distributed after Sundance. So hopefully at a movie theater coming your way.Insane right?
  1. falicon Jan 21, 2014
    
    Yes – though I can def. see it becoming a bigger thing. Given a choice my oldest (10) would play Minecraft all day, ever day…and if we let him play too long on a weekend day, once we make him turn it off, he *will* be agitated and grumpy the rest of the day…more so than just his average pre-teen grumpiness I mean ;-)I don’t know that a military-like bootcamp experience would be my choice for addressing it (we just set hard limits on ‘screen time’ per day and try to talk to him about being self-aware of the situation as much as possible)…but can’t wait to see where they go with it in the documentary…
Brandon Burns Jan 21, 2014

I haven’t watched the whole thing yet, but I’ve been reading about it.When I moved to Beijing to open the BBDO office there, I was shocked at how much I had to re-learn about Internet behavior. The Chinese have a very different relationship with the Internet, which stems from basic cultural differences.In the west, we fight for transparency and simplicity. In China, people want anonymity and unstructured experiences. You can observe this in how there are so many popular platforms in China that feel like Second Life, with people pretending to be someone else in an online world. While people in western cultures use their real name or a screen name that clearly represents who they really are, the average Chinese person maintains multiple anonymous screen names and juggles different personas in different places with ease.Now think about the differences in our governments, and it all starts to make sense.Building digital platforms for the Chinese was probably one of the most enriching experiences I’ve had.
1. Gotham Gal Jan 21, 2014
  
  I think you hit the nail on the head. Culturally there is such a difference between both of our countries.