Technological addictions: Conceptualisation, measurement, etiology and treatment.

Nowadays, Internet and mobile phone use are widespread worldwide. Forty percent of the world population use the Internet, whereas six times more individuals are online today compared to the last decade (International Telecommunication Union, 2012, 2013). Advancements in digital technologies have resulted in various positive applications, including (but not limited to) promoting (mental) health, education, leisure, communication and global connectivity. However, extensive research conducted over the last two decades also evidenced that the use of digital technologies may come at a price, and accumulating evidence resulting from empirical research emphasized that a number of negative consequences are linked to the overuse of these technologies, such as subjective distress and psychopathological symptoms, health problems, professional and social disruptions, symptoms traditionally associated with substance-related addictions (see Billieux, Maurage, Lopez-Fernandez, Kuss, & Griffiths, 2015; Kuss, Griffiths, Karila, & Billieux, 2014, for reviews). Accordingly, technological innovations of the 21st Century have not only brought about significant lifestyle changes which some critically refer to as leading to us being “alone together” (i.e., brought together virtually by technology, but physically alone due to overengagement with technology) (Turkle, 2013), and in some instances may lead to the development of addictive usage patterns. Initial publications on the topic, which often took the form of clinical case description or theoretical papers (Griffiths, 1996; Young, 1996), largely assumed that deregulated use of digital technologies should be considered as a “behavioural” or “non-chemical” addiction (Marks, 1990), based on their similarities with substance-related addictions, including cognitive salience, mood modification, tolerance and withdrawal-like manifestations, conflict, and relapse (Griffiths, 2005). Various terms emerged in the literature to describe pathological use of digital technologies, such as “Internet addiction” (Young, 1998), “compulsive Internet use” (Greenfield, 1999), or “mobile phone addiction” (Chóliz, 2010). It has also been proposed that these various disorders could fall within the remit of technological addictions, which have been defined as “non-chemical behavioural addictions which involve human-machine interaction”, and includes both passive and active behaviours which are maintained via reinforcing characteristics and may lead to the development of an addiction (Griffiths, 1995, p. 15). Over the course of the last 20 years, a myriad of empirical studies has been published suggesting Internet use-related disorders can be considered addictive behaviours, including research on the development of diagnostic criteria (Tao et al., 2010) and screening instruments (Lortie & Guitton, 2013), (2) epidemiology (Kuss, Griffiths, et al., 2014a), neurobiology (D'Hondt, Billieux, & Maurage, 2015; Kuss & Griffiths, 2012) and psycho(patho)logical correlates (Kuss & Lopez-Fernandez, 2016),