What are the core take-home messages about addiction and "online addiction"?

• Addiction is a disease.
• Addiction is a bio-psycho-social phenomenon.
• Every addiction starts with unproblematic, "positive" consumption or behaviour.
• "Online addiction" as such does not exist.
• Not the time on the device matters, but the impact on one's life.
• We are all part of the attention economy.

How they fit together:

• Because addiction is a disease with biological, psychological and social causes, it calls for treatment and for changing conditions, not for blame.
• Because every addiction starts as enjoyment, there is no clean line between "normal" users and "addicts"; there is a continuum, and prevention has to reach everyone.
• Because "online addiction" is an umbrella for very different behaviours (gaming, gambling, social media, shopping, pornography), each must be looked at on its own.
• Because impact, not hours, is the criterion, the question to ask is: what does my use do to my sleep, relationships, work and health?
• Because we are all part of the attention economy, this is not only a problem of "vulnerable others" but one that concerns every user, designer and developer.

Topics still open: loot boxes and microtransactions, pornography, compulsive buying, AI companions, and the mixing of all of these in one app.

Go deeper:

• Suchtprävention Zürich: self-tests — short self-tests on one's own use (German).
• Wikipedia: Behavioral addiction — the broader category online behaviours are being argued into.