title: Internet addiction: reappraisal of an increasingly inadequate concept.
abstract: This article re-examines the popular concept of Internet addiction, discusses the key problems associated with it, and proposes possible alternatives. The concept of Internet addiction is inadequate for several reasons. Addiction may be a correct designation only for the minority of individuals who meet the general criteria for addiction, and it needs to be better demarcated from various patterns of excessive or abnormal use. Addiction to the Internet as a medium does not exist, although the Internet as a medium may play an important role in making some behaviors addictive. The Internet can no longer be separated from other potentially overused media, such as text messaging and gaming platforms. Internet addiction is conceptually too heterogeneous because it pertains to a variety of very different behaviors. Internet addiction should be replaced by terms that refer to the specific behaviors (eg, gaming, gambling, or sexual activity), regardless of whether these are performed online or offline.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Psychiatry,University of Sydney,Sydney Medical School - Nepean,Sydney,New South Wales,Australia.
authors.forename: Vladan
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Starcevic
authors.affiliation: 2Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences,Stanford University School of Medicine,Stanford,California,USA.
authors.forename: Elias
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Aboujaoude
mesh_terms: D016739:Behavior, Addictive; D005715:Gambling; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D060145:Text Messaging; D018910:Video Games
keywords: Behavioral addiction; Internet; Internet addiction; Internet gaming disorder; Internet use; Internet use disorder; compulsive Internet use; pathological Internet use; problematic Internet use