Is it meaningful to distinguish between generalized and specific Internet addiction? Evidence from a cross‐cultural study from <scp>G</scp>ermany, <scp>S</scp>weden, <scp>T</scp>aiwan and <scp>C</scp>hina

TLDR

Internet addiction is theorized to comprise a generalized form affecting many online activities and specific forms focused on particular activities such as gaming or social networking. This study examines the relationship between generalized and specific Internet addiction across four countries with 636 participants. Researchers measured generalized addiction and specific addictive behaviors in online gaming, shopping, social networking, and pornography among participants from China, Taiwan, Sweden, and Germany. Results confirm distinct specific addiction forms, except that online social network addiction strongly correlates with generalized addiction in most samples, underscoring the need to differentiate the two.

Abstract

Abstract Introduction It has been hypothesized that two distinctive forms of Internet addiction exist. Here, generalized Internet addiction refers to the problematic use of the Internet covering a broad range of Internet‐related activities. In contrast, specific forms of Internet addiction target the problematic use of distinct online activities such as excessive online video gaming or activities in social networks. Methods The present study investigates the relationship between generalized and specific Internet addiction in a cross‐cultural study encompassing data from C hina, T aiwan, S weden and G ermany in n = 636 participants. In this study, we assessed – besides generalized Internet addiction – addictive behavior in the domains of online video gaming, online shopping, online social networks and online pornography. Results The results confirm the existence of distinct forms of specific Internet addiction. One exception, however, was established in five of the six samples under investigation: online social network addiction correlates in large amounts with generalized Internet addiction. Discussion I n general, it is of importance to distinguish between generalized and specific Internet addiction.