Literature Review - Quantative and Qualitative

C Y B E R P S YC H O L O G Y & B E H A V IO R V o lum e 3, Nu mb er 2, 2000 M ary A n n Liebert, Inc. D oes Intern et an d C om puter “ A dd iction ” E xist? Som e C ase Stud y E vid ence MA RK GRIFFIT HS, Ph.D. ABSTRA CT It has been alleged that social patholo gies are beginni ng to surface in cyberspa ce (i.e., tech- nologica l addictio ns). To date, there is very little empirica l evidence that com puting activi- ties (i.e., internet use, hacking, program m ing) are addictiv e. A necdotal evidence indicate s that the typical “ addict” is a teenager, usually m ale, with little or no social life, and little or no self-con fidence. This article concentr ates on five case studies of excessive com puter usage. It is argued that of the five cases, only tw o of them describe “ addicted ” subjects . Addicti on com - ponents criteria were used in the assessm ent. The excessive usage in the majority of cases was purely symptom atic and w as highlig hted how the subjects used the Internet/ com puter to countera ct other deficienc ies. 211 INTROD U CTIO N I T H A S B E E N A L L E G E D that social pathologies are beginning to surface in cyberspace (i.e., tech- nological addictions). 1 ,2 Technologic al addic- tions are operationally defined as nonchemical (behavioural) addictions that involve human– machine interaction. They can either be pas- sive (e.g., television) or active (e.g., computer games) and usually contain inducing and rein- forcing features that may contribute to the pro- motion of addictive tendencies. 3 – 5 This author’ s view is that technological addictions are a sub- set of behaviourial addictions 6 and that behav- iourial addictions feature the core component s of addiction (i.e., salience, mood modification , tolerance, withdrawal, conflict and relapse). 7 These core component s are expanded upon. Salience This occurs when the particular activity be- com es the m ost im po rtant activity in the per- son’ s life and do minates his or her thinking (preoccu pations and cognitive distortio ns), feelings (cravings ), and behaviour (deterior a- tion of socialized behaviou r). For instance, even if the person is not actually engaged in the be- haviour, he or she will be thinking about the next opportun ity to do so. Mood m odification T his refers to the subjec tiv e exp erience s that peop le repo rt as a co nsequ en ce o f en- gaging in the p articul ar activ ity and can be seen as a co ping strate gy (i.e., they ex perienc e an aro usin g “ buzz” or a “ high ” o r parad o xi- cally tranqu ilizin g feel o f “ escap e” o r “ nu m b- in g” ). Tolerance This is the process whereby increasing am ounts of the particular activity are required to achieve the form er effects. For instance, a P sych olo g y D ivision , N o ttin g h am T ren t U n iversit y , N ott ing h am , U n ited K in g do m .

gam bler m ay have to gradually have to in- crease the size of the bet to experienc e a eu- phoric effect that w as initially obtained by a much smaller bet. Withdrawa l sym ptom s These are the unpleasan t feeling states and/ or physical effects that occur w hen the particular activity is discontin ued or suddenly reduced (e.g., the shakes, moodine ss, irritabil- ity, etc.). Conflict This refers to the conflicts between the ad- dict and those around them (interpers onal con- flict) or from within the individua ls themselv es (intrapsy chic conflict) that are concern ed with the particular activity. Relapse This is the tendency for repeated reversion s to earlier patterns of the particular activity to recur and for even the most extrem e patterns typical of the height of the addiction to be quickly restored after m any years of abstinenc e or contro l. To date, there is very little empirical evidence that computi ng activities (i.e., internet use, hacking, program ming) are addictive . A necdo- tal evidence indicates that the typical “ addict” is a teenager, usually male, with little or no so- cial life and little or no self-con fidence. 8 H ow- ever, recent work suggests there are individu- als who do not fit this stereotyp e. 9 This article concentr ates on five case studies of excessive com puter usage collected by the author over a period of 6 months. Each of the outlined cases has been given a pseudon ym and a dem o- graphic descriptio n (i.e., age, gender, national- ity, status). Inform ation is also given about the origin and source of the case study. Each case is also followed by a brief commen tary. GA RY Dem ographic profile: 15-year-o ld British male (at school); source of account: author con- tacted by subject’ s m other who heard about au- thor’ s research on a national radio programm e; and origin of data: written correspo ndence. Gary is an only child and spends many hours on his home computer, averaging at least 3– 4 hours a day in school term, with up to 5 or 6 hours or more a day at weekends. During the school holidays it increases even more, espe- cially because he is on his own in the house whilst his parents are at work. Gary’ s mother de- scribes him as “ extremely good technically, very bright and very good at computer program- ming.” His mother claims “ he is computer mad, but not for computer games, rather for serious computing— programming etc.” His General Certificate of Secondary Education homework has been increasingly suffering because of the time he spends on his computer. When he is not working on his computer, he watches television. Gary suffers from neurofibr om otosis, a con- dition that can produce severe behaviou ral problem s to varying degrees. A ccording to his mother, Gary has alw ays had problem s so- cially. He has had difficulty in making friends, difficulty in coping with teasing and minor bul- lying (usually of a verbal nature). His parents feel he views his com puter as a “ friend” and, therefore , tends to spend m uch of his time on the m achine. Gary also suffers from an inferi- ority complex and lack of confiden ce w hen dealing with his peers. As a conseque nce, he gets very depressed . This condition worsened when he got his ow n compute r. A t the same tim e, his general behaviou r worsened . He re- fused to do his norm al househo ld chores when requested , was generally awkward and diffi- cult, and provoke d confron tational situation s between him self and other members of the fam ily. He spends time with the compute r to the ex- clusion of fam ily and friends. His parents had his general practition er refer him to a psychia- trist for counsellin g and help. Whilst Gary viewed this as a possible “ quick fix” for his problem s, it was very slow progress . H e is still getting the help of the local psycholo gical ser- vices. His mother feels that m uch of his lack of confiden ce stem s from the fact that he is con- tent to spend his time in his room to the ex- clusion of others in his own world. She sees the problem as “ a self-indu ced Catch 22 situation” in that he w ill never make friends w hilst he G R I FFIT H S 212 spends tim e alone, but the action of spending tim e alone reduces his ability to deal w ith other peo ple. Gary’ s own view is that he does not have a problem w ith his com puter use and that he does not spend too m uch time on the com - puter. There is no doubt that this appears to be an unusual case and that Gary’ s excessive time spent on the com puter appears to be sympto- matic of other underlyin g problem s. Com mentary Gary appears to fit the stereotyp e of a com - puter addict in that he is a m ale teenager who appears to have little or no social life and little or no self-conf idence. He appears to use the machine as an “ electronic friend” — a behaviou r that has been reported with other technolo gi- cal products such as video games 1 0 and slot machines . 3 – 5 He appears to display all the core com ponents of addiction and like many ad- dicts, denies he has any kind of problem. His primary m otivation for excessive use of his com puter appears to be som e sort of escapism into his ow n w orld where he can counterac t his depressio n and forget about his social isolation and his medical conditio n (neurofib romotos is). JA M IE Dem ographic profile: 16-year-o ld British male (at college); source of acco unt: Subject ap- peared on television program me (about Inter- net addiction ) with author and continued cor- respond ence; origin of data: face-to-f ace interview and written correspo ndence via the Internet. Jam ie is an o n ly ch ild and lives alo ne w ith his m other. Th ere ap pears to be few pro blem s in Jam ie’ s fam ily life altho ugh h is m o th er d i- v orced his father w hen Jam ie w as 3 years o ld . Jam ie has no p hysica l proble m s altho u gh he is very ov erw eight. Jam ie spend s ap prox i- m ately 70 ho urs a w eek on h is co m pu ter in - clud ing 40 ho urs o n the Intern et. Th is in - clud es tw o 12-h ou r s essio ns at the weeken d . O nly 3 ho urs a w eek is sp en t o n w o rk-rela ted activ ities. Jam ie’ s u sual pattern is to log on betw een 2 p.m . an d 4 p.m . in the aftern o on and log o ff betw een 1 a.m . and 5 a.m . in the m o rning . H e descri bes him self as “ sci-fi m ad ” and sp en ds “ ho urs an d ho u rs” taking p art in U senet d iscuss io n grou ps abo ut the televis ion pro gram m e Star Trek (and its spin -offs) . A l- tho ugh h e had played co m puter gam es w h en he w as y ou nger, Jam ie firs t us ed a co m pu ter pro perly w hen he w as 14 years of age. H e used the Intern et for abou t 10 m o nths before getting a m od em . A s a co nsequ en ce o f h is ex - cessiv e Intern et use, the ho use telepho ne b ills are larg e. Jamie claims the Internet is the m ost impor- tant things in his life, and that he thinks about it even w hen he is not using it. He claims the Internet can change his mood— either calm ing him or exciting him . He gets w ithdrawal symp- toms if he cannot get Internet access. W hen try- ing to cut down or quit, he finds the lure of cy- berspace too strong to resist (“ I get very irritable and I start to shake” ). How ever, he does not view him self as an “ addict.” Jamie says he has difficulty limiting or con- trolling the tim e both on and offline. Over a 2- year period he has upgraded his computer 11 tim es. He says “ I log on literally until I am physically unplugge d by som eone else . . . I can’ t work or live without it— my social and in- tellectual life are linked directly to it.” If he’ s not connecte d— even for a short length of tim e, he worries he no longer knows “ what is going on.” Jam ie’ s use of the Internet causes irregu- lar sleeping patterns. It doesn’ t bother him that he has become nocturn al in order to use the In- ternet when the telephone charges are low. Oc- casionally he oversleep s and m isses college be- cause of his compute r usage. He has tried to quit the internet— once giving up for 3 days— but the pressure to log back on proved too great. If Jamie was not online, he feels he would not use that time to meet people in real life (“ I tend not to socialise m uch” ). He has no friends outside of those he m eets on Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and has no desire to m ake any. Jam ie uses the Internet for a variety of differ- ent chat m ethods (e.g., IRC , Westwoo d Chat, as well as the W eb and newgrou ps). Jam ie claims he uses these services “ to m eet lots of peo ple.” He feels that the Internet has im - proved his level of knowled ge and intends to enter an Internet-r elated field of employm ent. E XI ST EN C E O F IN T E R N E T A D D IC T IO N 213 Com mentary Jamie— like the case of Gary above— appears to fit the stereotyp e of an internet addict in that he is a m ale teenager w ho appears to have lit- tle or no social life, little or no self-conf idence, displays all the core com ponents of addiction , and denies he has any kind of problem . H ow- ever, Jamie claims to have “ friends” although all of these are “ net friendsh ips.” His passion for science-f iction echoes research carried out by W olfson 1 1 w ho found that obsessiv e fans of the television program me Star Trek use the In- ternet extensive ly. Jam ie’ s prim ary m otivation for using the Internet excessive ly is to socialise with other Internet users. It may be the case that Jamie feels comfor table in the text-based (non– face-to-f ace) world of the Internet be- cause of his obesity. PA NOS Dem ographic profile: 20-year old Greek m ale (at university ); source of account: subject con- tacted author via an Internet discussio n group; origin of data: W ritten correspo ndence via the Internet. Panos has played on computer games since he was a small child. A s an only child he got alm ost anything he wanted when he w as younger, including all fo rms of electronic tech- nology. He recalls that as a child he had a small com puter on which he used to play gam es but used the com puter for nothing else. Panos claims that at that particular tim e in his life, he had become “ addicted ” to the games he used to play. He played the games to the neglect of everythin g else in his life. He now believes that peo ple can becom e addicted to computer s as well and that the escapism he felt as a young boy is now being recreated via his use of the Internet— particular ly through the playing of fantasy role-playin g games (such as D ungeons and D ragons ) and through the use of chat room s. As Panos says: I w as 100% sure th at y ou co uld o nly bec om e add icted to a c o m p uter by p layin g gam es. I tho ught that it was i m p o ssi ble to bec om e ad- di cted to a co m p uter by using it fo r p r o fes- sio nal p urp o ses. M any years later I cam e to En gland to stu dy ch em istry and I soo n I real- ized that I c o uldn ’ t d o w itho ut co m p uters. But this tim e it w as no t p lay ing gam es. G radually , I disco v er e d th e hug e w o rld o f Intern et an d its m any uses and ap p licati o ns. I used to go to the co m p uter o nly to w o rd p ro c ess and p rin t but no w I am sp end ing m any ho urs ever y day ex- p lo rin g Inter net, in add itio n to send ing nu- m ero us E -m ails an d do ing stuff that in fact (fo r entertainm ent) and to m y op in io n can r uin som ebo dy ’ s life.” Panos feels his whole life revolves around com puters and that he feels com fortable being in this country when he is on the Internet. He claims that using the Internet excessive ly helps him cope w ith every day life as a universit y student. He spends an average 40– 50 hours a week on the Internet but has no financial prob- lem s because he accesses the Internet for free from his universit y. His studies have suffered consider ably as he spends so much time on the Internet, which leaves him little tim e to get on with his degree work. Com mentary Panos, to som e extent, appears to fit the stereotyp e of an internet addict in that he is a young male who appears to have little or no social life and little or no self-conf idence. H ow- ever, he appears to display only som e the core com ponents o f addiction (salience, conflict, moo d m odificatio n, and possibly tolerance) , and, unlike the previous two cases, he does not deny he has a problem surroun ding his Inter- net usage. The primary m otivation for exces- sive Internet usage is to cope w ith the fact that he is in a foreign country in w hich he has very few friends. Panos very m uch uses the Internet for escapism and socializing . It is interestin g to note that Panos claim ed he was once “ addicted” to compute r gam es. There have been a num ber of models putting forward a developm ental account of person– machine relationsh ips. 1 2 ,1 3 It is perhaps unsurpris ing that a form er computer game “ addict” should use the Internet m ost excessive ly for the fan- tasy role-playi ng games. A fairly recent study of fantasy gam e players found that that the tim e spent on such gam es was “ consider able” and that they were more introvert ed and m ore G R I FFIT H S 214 likely to “ play with com puters” and be com - puter game players than co ntrols. 1 4 JODIE Dem ographic profile: 35-year-o ld C anadian fem ale (unem ployed); source of account: sub- ject contacted author via an Internet discussio n group; origin of data: written correspo ndence via the Internet. Jo die spend s at least 40 hours a week on the Internet . Her excessiv e usage is totally con- fined to IRC services . Jod ie describe s herself as “ disabled , overwei ght and not at all attrac- tive.” She says that this makes no differen ce on the Interne t because she gets to know o th- ers first in the Interne t environ m ent and that then w hen she m eets them in “ real life” later it do es not matter. She says “ I have m et w ell over a d ozen peo ple in real life that I first m et on IRC o r in som e other way thro ugh the In- ternet.” She d oes no t v iew her use of the In- ternet as an addictio n althoug h she does see it as a way of life. Almost all of Jodie’ s relationsh ips are Inter- net-based . T he following extract is her account of the typical cycle of an Internet relationsh ip. I m eet m en thr ou gh IR C and w e start ou t the sam e as an yo ne else just c hatting— w here are yo u fro m ? H o w o ld ? A n y k ids? A n d then it evo lv es i nto exc hangi n g p ic tur es, p ho ne calls and th en an o verw hel m in g d esir e to m eet in real life. W hen I m eet a g uy, I usual ly deci de to m eet “ as fr iends” an d if th er e is m o re then that is fine. Ev en if ther e is no thing ro m anti c I usually hav e a go od tim e. Jodie is now married to som eone she met on the Internet but sees him very little because she lives in Alberta (Canada) and he lives in North Caro lina (U nited States). They m et on a camp- ing holiday with other people she had met through the Internet. Jo die only m eets with her husband at traditiona l vacation times (e.g., Christma s) and suffers verbal abuse from her mother about her marriage. Her m other thinks her daughter has lost her mind and is crazy for wanting to m arry som eone she feels that her daughter does not really know . Jodie says of her relationsh ip: G ranted, o ur ac tu al r eal li fe tog ether tim e hasn’ t been m uc h— ho w ever, I feel our tim e o n the net (w e sp eak fo r 3– 4 ho urs ev ery nigh t) has giv en us M O RE o f a c hance to really get to k now eac h o ther . . . all w e do is talk about o ur feelin gs, wants an d need s, futur e desires etc.

Jodie feels her excessive Internet use is purely a function of the relationsh ips in which she is invo lved and that it is no different from other people’ s use of the telephone . The em o- tional “ highs” that she gains from using the In- ternet come from the social interactio n rather than the Internet herself. She claims that she gets depresse d and m oody when she is not on IRC but again she says this is because it means she is on her ow n without it. Com mentary Althoug h Jodie appears to display som e of the compon ents of addiction (salience, m ood modifica tion, and withdraw al) she do es not fit the young m ale stereotyp e. Sim ilar to Jamie, she is very overweig ht and is explicit in ex- plaining that she likes the Internet because no face-to-f ace comm unication takes place. Her primary motivatio n for using the Internet ex- cessively was to socialise (also exacerbate d by the fact that she is disabled) although this has now changed into the most accessible (cheap- est) way to stay in touch with her partner. Jodie does not feel she has a problem in any way and feels that the excessive ness she displays on the Internet is totally vindicated by the situation she is in. DA V E Dem ographic profile: 32-year-o ld British male (employe d); source of account: author contacted by subject’ s wife after reading an ar- ticle about author’ s research on Internet addic- tion in a national newspap er; origin of data: written correspo ndence. Dave (“ a loveable happy m an” ) had been married to his wife for 3 years and had lived with her for 7 years. They had a beautiful house, D ave had an excellent job, and they were both very happy— until the Internet en- E XI ST EN C E O F IN T E R N E T A D D IC T IO N 215 tered D ave’ s life. The problem began w hen Dave changed jobs and had to spend m ore time at home— alone. As a result of this, Dave quickly becam e depressed and slightly with- drawn. As a result, he began spending time on the IRC whilst his wife was at work. W ithin a co uple of months of being at ho me, he becam e w orse, co uld not sleep, and used the Interne t long into the early hours of the m orning. His w ife claimed that D ave got “ an incredib le thrill from using (the Internet ), as though filling a need w ithin.” He becam e an- gry and anxious , with “ his whole bod y be- com ing tw itchy w hen he w as not on the In- ternet.” He also suffere d a lo ss of concen tration and turned into som eone that his wife did not know. W ithin 3 mo nths of being at ho me, D ave’ s w ife found out that he was using the Internet to live in a fantasy world — mainly with peo ple in the U nited States. H is wife claim s “ he becam e to tally obsesse d by it— not leaving his office fo r up to 5 days at a time, ex- cept to eat and sleep.” The cost of D ave’ s In- ternet use was kept hid den from his w ife but she found out that the “ other w om an” lived in Bosto n and that Dav e w ould call her five or six times a day and talk to her for 3– 4 ho urs on IRC. W ithin 3 m onths of “ working” from hom e, Dave had left his wife and walked out without a w ord. His wife did not know where Dave had gone until she found out he had gone to the U nited States to m eet a w oman who “ under- stands” his fantasy world through the Internet. Dave propose d marriage to the Am erican wom an before he left the United Kingdom — even though he had never m et her. H is wife says that the Internet caused the destruct ion of their marriage, the loss of their house, and the loss of her husband . Dave briefly returned hom e for 10 days but has now gone back to A merica “ to live out his fantasy.” A s far as his wife knows, he is not now using the Internet. Dave now adm its that his fantasy was not quite what he wanted, and that he is depressed and has begun to realise the dam age of losing his job, his wife, and walking out on his family. Dave’ s wife specu- lates that men can emotiona lly com municate better through a compute r than verbal com - municatio n. She says, “ It seem s to be so wide- spread now that people need to escape from every day life and intimacy via Internet.” Com mentary Althoug h Dave is a m ale, he does not fit the Internet addict stereotyp e in that he is not a teenager or young. However , he does appear to fulfill m ost of the addiction compon ents (at least while he was having his virtual affair) al- though the whole of his behaviou r appears symptom atic and was completel y motivated by his desire to interact constant ly with a new “ partner.” A lthough there is no direct evi- dence, it appears that his Internet usage has now declined significan tly or stopped now that he has finally m et up w ith the woman with whom he was having a virtual affair. GENERA L DISCU SSION It is quite obvious that of the five cases, pos- sibly only tw o of them (Gary and Jam ie) were addicted accordin g to the addiction compo- nents criteria. The excessive usage in the m a- jority of cases was purely symptom atic and w as where the Internet/ com puter w as used to countera ct other deficiencie s (e.g., relation- ships, lack of friends, physical appearanc e, dis- ability, coping, etc.). H owever, it is interestin g that all of the case studies used the com puter for social contact, with four of them using it for IRC services and the fifth one using the com - puter as an “ electronic friend.” A s these cases show, text-based relationsh ips can obviousl y be rewarding for some people and is an area for future research. It is perhaps also refresh- ing that in some circum stances, online rela- tionships could be deemed to be psycholo gi- cally healthy because they break down prejudice s and that intim ate relationsh ips are not based on people’ s physical appearanc e. The three young m ales were all only children who appeared socially isolated and had few so- cial skills. These factors m ay or may not have had an influence in excessive compute r use. However , the psychoth erapist Rawlins 1 5 has specifically reported some positive attributes through intensive Internet use. Rawlins sees many children who fit the criteria for Pervasive Developm ental Delay or A typical A utism. She G R I FFIT H S 216 reports that these children o ften “ fit in hand and glove” with compute r technolo gy. They al- ready have poor social relatednes s and are rather isolated individua ls. She argues that net use may actually augment and help their social interactio n. Another question to consider is whether the social patholog ies in cyberspac e are inevitable. A jayi 1 6 has reported that, w here the Internet is concerne d, what w e are seeing is merely the continua tion of a decades-l ong trend of people spending increasing ly m ore tim e with technol- ogy than with humans. He argues that the shift away from family and peers to mass m edia technolo gy as the primary socializatio n agents can be traced to the advent of radio in the 1930s, followed by television in the 1950s, and com - puter network s today. A jayi further argues that, fo r many people, going online is a way of dealing w ith a society where people are be- com ing increasing ly m ore isolated from one another. One of the objectives of any future research should be to determine the object of the “ ad- diction.” Is it the process of typing? The medium of com municatio n? A spects of its spe- cific style (no face-to-f ace, etc.)? The inform a- tion that can be obtained (e.g., pornogr aphy)? Playing games? T alking to others (in chat room s or on Internet Relay C hat)? Could it be that the Internet provides a m edium for the “ addiction ” to flow to its object of unhealthy attachmen t (i.e., a seconda ry addiction to m ore pervasive primary problems )? The Internet could easily be the focus of obsessive and/ or com pulsive behaviou rs. One thing that may in- tensify this focus are the vast resources avail- able on the Internet to feed or fuel other ad- dictions or com pulsions. For exam ple, to a sex addict, the Internet could be a very dangerou s medium . There is also the problem that the In- ternet consists of many different types of ac- tivity (e.g., E-m ailing, inform ation brow sing, file transferrin g, socialising , role-game playing, etc.), and it could be the case (and probably is the case) that som e of these activities (such as IRC or role-playi ng gam es) are more addictive than some other net activities. Future research should establish why the in- ternet is highly reinforcin g for som e people. Hamm ersly 1 7 has speculated on a number of reasons that appear to fit with the case studies outlined in this article: • It allows correspo ndence with people who share mutual interests. • It puts people in touch with other people w ho they would otherwis e never m eet. • The costs of comm unicating is low. • There is a substant ial “ puzzle” elem ent to using the internet, and many people find puzzling tasks reinforcin g. • People can downloa d software toys, some of which are reinforcin g. • People can keep in touch with friends with m inim al tim e and financial costs. • It gives people feelings of status and m odernity, w hich m ay bolster self-esteem . These are all comm onplace reinforce rs for humans. • It allows people to be taken seriously and listened to. • It allows people to present a “ well-man- aged” persona, which m ay deviate in sig- nificant ways from one’ s every-da y, face- to-face persona. • It allows people to be boring about one’ s favourite hobby horse. Finally, it is perhaps w orth nothing that Grif- fiths 5 speculated that the structur al character - istics of the software m ight prom ote addictive tendencie s. Structura l characteris tics (i.e., fea- tures that m anufactur ers design into their product s) promote interactivit y and, to some extent, define alternative realities for the user and allow them feelings of anonymit y in fea- tures that may be very psycholo gically re- warding. For instance, determina nts of the de- cision to engage in a particular activity not only include the person’ s biological and psycholo g- ical constitu tion and the situation al variables, but also the structura l characteris tics of the ac- tivity itself. A s Griffiths 1 8 points out, the struc- tural characteris tics of particular activities are responsib le for reinforcem ent and may satisfy users’ needs and may actually facilitate exces- siveness. By identifyin g particular structura l characteri stics, it m ay be possible to see how (a) needs are identified , (b) inform ation about the Internet is presented (or perhaps misrepre- sented), and (c) cognition s are influenced and E XI ST EN C E O F IN T E R N E T A D D IC T IO N 217 distorted . (See Griffiths 1 8 for an overview on structura l characteris tics.) There is no doubt that Internet usage am ong the general populatio n w ill start to increase over the next few years. If social patholog ies do exist, than psycholo gists m ay well be the peo- ple who have to deal with the afterm ath. T his is certainly an area for developm ent that should be of interest and concern to all those involved in clinical health issues. REFERE NCES 1. Griffiths, M .D. (1996). Internet “ add iction” : A n issue for clinical psych ology? Clinical P sychology Forum , 97:32– 36. 2. Griffith s, M .D . (1997). Psy cho log y o f co m pu ter u se: X L III. 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P layin g vid eo g am es: T h e elec- torn ic frien d . Jou rn al of C om m u n ication , 34:148– 156. 11 . W o lfs o n , S . (1 995 , D ec em b e r) . S t ar t re k fan b e h a v - i o u r : “ It ’ s ad d i ct io n Ji m , b u t n o t as w e k n o w i t .” P a - p e r p re se n t e d a t t h e B ri t is h P s y ch o l o g ica l S o ci et y L o n d o n C o n fe re n c e, In s ti t u t e o f E d u ca ti o n , L o n - d o n . 12. B ro w n , R .I.F . (1989). G am ing , g am blin g , risk tak in g , ad d iction s and a d evelop m en tal m o d el o f a path o l- og y o f m an -m ach i n e relat ion sh ips. In : K lab ber, J., Croo w all, D ., d e Jon g , H ., an d Sch eper, W . (ed s.). S im - ulation gam ing. O xford : P erg am on P ress. 13. Griffith s, M .D . (1991). A m u sem e n t m ach in e p layin g in ch ild ho o d an d ad o lescen c e: A com p arativ e an aly - sis o f vid eo g am es and fruit m ach in es. Jou rn al of A do- lescen ce, 14:53– 73. 14. D ou se, N .A ., an d M cM anu s, I.C. (1993). T h e p erso n - ality of fan tasy g am e p lay ers. British Jou rnal of P sy- chology, 84:505– 509. 15. R aw lins, C . (1995). Cited in “ T erm inal A d d ictio n .” In - tern et and C om m s T oday, p. 35. 16. A jay i, A . (1995). Cit ed in T erm in al A d d ictio n . In ter- net an d C om m s Today, p . 36. 17. H am m ersle y , R . (1995). P erso n al e-m ail co m m un i ca- tion to A D D IC T -L d iscu ssio n g rou p . 18. Griffith s, M .D . (1993). Fru it m ach in e g am blin g : T h e im po rt an c e o f st ructu ral ch aracteris tics. Jou rnal of G am blin g S tu dies, 9:133– 152. A ddress reprint requests to: D r. M ark Griffiths Psychology Division Nottingha m Trent University Burton Street Nottingha m, NG1 4BU E-m ail: m ark.griffith [email protected]. uk G R I FFIT H S 218