Introduction Every­one seems worried about addiction: addiction to our cell phones, addiction to our computer games, addiction to Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. The media routinely run stories on individuals whose lives suffer due to their technology use, and news commentators regularly warn us about how our computer-­ and Internet-­ based devices need to be regulated, turned off, or altered. ­ There is a pervasive rumor that computer and phone manufacturers, along with the software companies, have conspired to keep us looking at and using our devices 24 hours a day. This is the so-­called attention economy, with the real goal of businesses supposedly being to get ­people to pay attention to their information and communications technologies (ICT) as much as pos­ si ­ ble. (The more that consumers use their technologies, the more that they click on advertisements, they more they make in-­app purchases, and the more they sign up for subscription-­ based ser­ vices, so the extended rumor goes.) According to ­ people who write books on the topic for the general public, even work- ers in the technology industry are aware of this conspiracy, and they actively take steps to lessen the impact of it on their own families. Steve Jobs, the famous for- mer head of Apple, Inc., purportedly maintained control over his child’s technol- ogy consumption. At the same time, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and other scientists have been examining the effect of the Internet and our devices upon society for several de­cades now, using the research tools of their professions. A large body of scholarly work has been amassed, although the constantly chang- ing nature of ICT means that ­there is always some new phenomenon to be investi- gated. So how much of what we hear in the media or read about in popu­lar books matches what scientists have learned? Is it true that we are all addicted to our tech- nologies? If so, then what are the downsides of it? Should parents be worried about their ­ children? The scientific, scholarly rec­ ord provides answers to ­ these questions, based on objective, empirical (i.e., based on data) studies—­ not just media hype, rumors, and conspiracy theories. ­ There is no doubt that addiction to technology is perceived to be a real prob­lem by many ­people. In South ­Korea, for example, the government pays for Internet addiction therapy. But establishing Internet addiction as a real phenomenon through scientific research has been extremely difficult. Another theme out ­ there in the media is that we are losing our ability to interact with other ­people ­ because our ­ faces are constantly ­behind a digital screen. Especially disconcerting is the wide- spread fear of the loss of empathy—­the ability to feel compassion for another
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