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This article reviews research linking social connection and problematic internet use, with attention to online relationships, loneliness, and social anxiety. The cited studies associate problematic use with seeking new contacts or emotional support online and preferring online interaction, while also discussing social deficits, mood regulation, and findings concerning adolescents.
This resource describes features of internet use that researchers have proposed may reinforce excessive or compulsive online behavior. It discusses accessibility, affordability, anonymity, convenience, escape, immersion, disinhibition, repeated exposure, interaction, simulation, and the possibility of presenting a constructed social identity online.
This overview introduces theories and research used to describe compulsive internet and cybersex use, including terminology, reported prevalence estimates, and possible effects on users. It also summarizes historical survey findings about online sexual activity and adolescent exposure, and identifies online behaviors that researchers associated with increased risk of sexual exploitation.
This article applies Adler’s goal-directed view of behavior to possible motivations for internet activity that becomes problematic. It outlines eight proposed motivators—excitement, comfort, escape, affirmation, belonging, power, helplessness, and revenge—and gives examples of how each may function as a payoff for online behavior.
The document outlines theories about why people may prefer computer-mediated communication, including cues-filtered-out and cues-filtered-in accounts. It discusses social information processing, social identity, hyperpersonal communication, selective self-presentation, and features that may make online interaction appealing to people experiencing social anxiety.
This article explains cognitive and social conditions that may contribute to disinhibited behavior online. Drawing on Suler’s model, it describes how anonymity, invisibility, delayed responses, imagined relationships, dissociation between online and offline identities, and reduced cues of authority can change how people communicate and behave.
This resource presents a neuropsychological model for understanding how reward, attention, and brain development may relate to compulsive internet activity. It describes brain regions and dopamine-linked reward pathways, then discusses research on flow states, altered time perception, and difficulty disengaging from online games as parts of the proposed model.
This resource presents screening tools for assessing problematic internet use and online sexual behavior. It describes the Internet Addiction Test, the revised Internet Sex Screening Test, and the Cybersex Addiction Screening Test, with sample questions addressing preoccupation, secrecy, interference with daily life, and difficulty limiting use.
