Are you on the internet or using screen-based devices? Revisiting the concepts of 'internet addiction' and 'smartphone addiction'

Demetrovics, Zsolt and Czakó, Andrea and Potenza, Marc N. and Griffiths, Mark D. and Fineberg, Naomi A. and Stein, Dan J. and Ekhtiari, Hamed and Brand, Matthias and Montag, Christian and Lin, Chung-Ying and Li, Li and Elhai, Jon D. and Király, Orsolya (2026) Are you on the internet or using screen-based devices? Revisiting the concepts of 'internet addiction' and 'smartphone addiction'. JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL ADDICTIONS. ISSN 2062-5871 (print); 2063-5303 (online)

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Abstract

The concept of ‘internet addiction’ was introduced in the 1990s and has increasingly been recognized as a clinical and public health issue. Although umbrella terms can be useful for screening, theoretical considerations, and intervention planning, the term itself has received criticism because of its conceptual heterogeneity, implying an addiction to a medium and not including a wide range of problematic behavioral patterns that are below the diagnostic threshold of a clinical disorder. To address this criticism, we propose adopting the term ‘problematic use’ instead of ‘addiction’. Furthermore, we argue that while ‘problematic usage of the internet’ is currently a useful umbrella term, recent technological advancements and increasing online presence may in the future require a conceptual and methodological shift in terminology from ‘internet’ to the more specific ‘screen-based devices’ or ‘screens’ that would enable more accurate assessment and intervention strategies. Terms focusing on specific devices, such as ‘smartphone addiction,’ should also be used with caution, as problematic use relates to applications rather than the hardware itself and may extend to various devices.

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