chapter 7

Problematic Internet Use, Online Gambling,

Smartphones, and Video Games

7.1 Introduction
Problematic uses of the Internet, online gambling, smartphones, and
video games are all receiving increasing recognition as potential public
health burdens (Griffiths et al., 2016; Kuss & Lopez-Fernandez 2016;
World Health Organization, 2015). Although there is some disagree-
ment about whether persons that excessively use the Internet are
addicted or just use the Internet excessively as a medium to fuel
their other addictions, Internet gaming disorder has been categorized
in the revised Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as
a condition for further study (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
Furthermore, excessive gaming and Internet use often co-occurs in
people with psychiatric conditions (González-Bueso et al., 2018; Ko
et al., 2012), including anxiety and depression (Yen et al., 2007), sleep
disorders (Lam, 2014), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Ceyhan
& Ceyhan, 2008; Yen et al., 2007), obsessive compulsiveness (Jiménez-
Murcia et al., 2014; Strittmatter et al., 2015), social problems (Ceyhan
& Ceyhan 2008; Ferguson, Coulson, & Barnett, 2011), physical health
problems (Kelley & Gruber, 2012), and decreased job productivity and
unemployment (Young, 2010).
While there are parallels to other addictions, the American
Psychiatric Association prefers the term “Internet Gaming Disorder”
over “Internet addiction” because a gaming addict is not necessarily
addicted to the Internet but simply uses it as a medium to engage in
the chosen behavior. According to Starcevic and Billieux (2017),
Internet-related disorders are best conceptualized within a spectrum
of related and yet independent disorders. For the purposes of this
chapter, cyber-spectrum disorders will be used for all discussions of
various forms of problematic use of the Internet, online gambling,
smartphones, and/or video games.

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 Problematic Internet Use, Online Gambling, Smartphones & Games 129
7.2 How and Why People Develop Problems with Internet Use,
Social Media, and Gaming
The issues surrounding problematic uses of the Internet, online gam-
bling, smartphones, and video games are multifaceted, with several
facets coming into play in assorted ways. Growing evidence suggests
that Internet addiction is associated with brain structural changes and
decreased control of executive functioning. Neuroimaging findings
reveal that brain regions associated with executive function (e.g.,
orbitofrontal cortex) had decreased cortical thickness in Internet-
addicted adolescents (Hong et al., 2013). Neuroimaging results have
consistently revealed brain regions associated with executive function
(e.g., left lateral orbitofrontal cortex, insula cortex, and entorhinal
cortex) had decreased cortical thickness in Internet gambling disor-
dered participants. Further, reduced cortical thickness of the left lateral
orbitofrontal cortex was associated with impaired cognitive control (for
a review, see chapter 7 of Parsons, 2017).
Matthias Brand and colleagues (2016) have developed an Interaction of
Person–Affect–Cognition–Execution (I-PACE) model of specific
Internet-use disorders. The I-PACE framework is based on previous the-
oretical considerations and empirical findings. It offers a model for con-
ceptualizing the processes underlying problematic use of the Internet and
cyber-addictions. The model emphasizes relations among predisposing
neurobiological and psychological factors that impact affective and cogni-
tive responses (e.g., reduced executive functioning) to situational triggers
in combination (see Figure 7.1).
Simply put, there are several issues involved in how and why persons
develop problematic Internet use, online gambling, excessive use of smart-
phones, and compulsions to play video games. As can be seen in the
I-PACE model, the use of such technologies has specific impacts on
cognitive and affective processing. For some people, the effects are more
potent given predisposing factors. The use of these technologies has given
rise to worldwide sociocultural transformations that include the perfor-
mance of cognitive and affective processes (Clowes, 2015). The digital and
coupled technologies such as the Internet, smartphones, and video games
are powerful, convenient, portable, and capable of storing vast amounts of
salient data about people’s lived experiences on the cloud. Moreover, these
technologies take part in the operations of our cognitive (e.g., memory)
processes (Clowes, 2015). In fact, our connections to digital information
now permeate most aspects of our lives. This has led to the integration of

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 130 Ethical Cyberpsychology Research and Interventions
Biopsychological constitution
• Genetic factors
• Early childhood experiences
• Stress vulnerability
Personality Psychopathology
• Impulsivity • Depression
• Low self-esteem • Social anxiety
• Low conscientiousness • ADHD

Social cognitions Specific motives for using

Person’s core
• Loneliness characteristics • Games
• Perceived social support • Gambles
• Social distrust • Cyber sex and pornography
• Shopping sites
• Communication sites/apps.

Subjectively perceived Internet-related

situation cognitive bias
• Confrontation with addiction-related cues • Expectancies
Coping style • Illusions
• Stress, personal conflicts, abnormal mood
• Implicit associations

Affective and cognitive responses

• Cue reactivity
• Craving
• Urge for mood regulation
• Attentional bias
Reductions of
executive
functions/
inhibitory control
Decision to use a

Reinforcement
certain application

Reinforcement
Reinforcement
Gratification
Reinforcement

Compensation

Stabilization and
Intensification
Specific Internet-use disorder
Stabilization and
Intensification
Stabilization and Diminished control Negative consequences
Intensification
over the Internet use in daily life

Figure 7.1 The Interaction of Person–Affect–Cognition–Execution (I-PACE)

model on the development and maintenance of a specific Internet-use disorder
(from Brand et al., 2016; reprinted with permission from the publisher)
Note that the emboldened lines with arrows denote the primary pathways of the
addiction process.

these technologies (e.g., Internet, smartphones) into the cognitive tasks we

perform in our activities of daily living.

7.2.1 The Internet Is a New Type of Cognitive Ecology

Paul Smart (2012, 2014, 2018) at the University of Southampton goes so far
as to argue that the Internet is a new type of cognitive ecology that provides
almost constant access to digital information that increasingly extends our
cognitive processes (see also Smart, Heersmink, & Clowes, 2017). As such,
these digital extensions of our cognitive processes are expanding into

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 Problematic Internet Use, Online Gambling, Smartphones & Games 131
Luciano Floridi’s (2014) infosphere (see Chapter 2 of this book). According
to Floridi, the ultimate nature of reality consists of information. Moreover,
he asserts that everyone lives in the “infosphere” as “inforgs” (i.e., informa-
tion organisms):
Minimally, infosphere denotes the whole informational environment con-
stituted by all informational entities, their properties, interactions, pro-
cesses, and mutual relations . . . Maximally, infosphere is a concept that
can also be used as synonymous with reality, once we interpret the latter
informationally. In this case, the suggestion is that what is real is informa-
tional and what is informational is real. (p. 41)
The notable metaphysical claim in Floridi’s information ethics is that the
totality of all that exists does so in the “infosphere” as an informational
object or process. Altering the characteristic data structures of informa-
tional objects and processes in the infosphere can result in significant
damage or destruction. Floridi refers to this damage or destruction as
“entropy” that acts as an evil that should be avoided or minimized.
Floridi’s information ethics is also notable for its assertion that everything
in the infosphere has at least a minimum value (or Spinozian right) that
should be respected. The construal of every existing entity to be “informa-
tional” and consisting of at least a minimal moral worth, Floridi’s informa-
tion ethics can complement traditional normative ethical theories. Hence,
our entire existence is increasingly permeated with technologies that can
both make our lives better and cause problems. As mentioned in Chapter 1
of this book, technologies impact our brains. Given that we are surrounded
by technologies, there is need for considerations of the ethical issues
surrounding the impacts of these technologies on our autonomy and
privacy.

7.2.2 Caught in the Spider Web of the World Wide Web

As discussed in Chapter 3, technologies extend our cognitive processes. The
extension of our cognitive processes to the World Wide Web is analogous
to a spider and its web. Richard Menary (2007), at Macquarie University,
considers the relations between a spider and its web. He asks us to
deliberate on whether a web is part of the spider’s system for ensnaring
prey or merely a tool that can be used by the spider to fulfill its goals.
Menary asks us:
Do you think that the web is simply a product of the relevant organs of the
spider, albeit a product crucial to its ability to catch prey? Or do you think

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 132 Ethical Cyberpsychology Research and Interventions
that the web is a part of the spider’s prey-catching system – a system that is
not bounded by the body of the spider but includes the web? After all, the
spider creates and carefully maintains and manipulates the web and it is
through the web that she is able to efficiently catch and consume her prey.
(Menary, 2007, p. 1)
Menary is alluding to the work of the evolutionary biologist Sir Richard
Dawkins (1982) on the extended phenotype. The idea of the extended
phenotype is that the composite set of an organism’s observable traits (i.e.,
phenotype) is not completely held within the organism itself but, in fact,
comprises more than a few facets of the external world. Dawkins (1982)
contends that “in a very real sense her web is a temporary functional
extension of her body, a huge extension of the effective catchment area
of her predatory organs” (p. 198).
Menary also pulls from Ruth Millikan to understand the organismic
system. The system should not be considered in terms of the body alone.
Instead, one needs also to consider the organism’s place in, and in relation
to, its environment. The organismic system involves “a coordination
among parts or subsystems, each of which requires that the other parts or
subsystems have normal structure and are functioning normally”
(Millikan, 1993, p. 160). The spider’s aptitude for trapping prey is an
organismic process that should be considered in lieu of the functional
operations of the spider and web in operation. This is important, for web
and predatory, perceptual, and motor organs each have a role to play in this
process and these roles must be coordinated. Menary extends the analogy
between the organismic system of the spider and web working in concert to
the extended cognition (Carter et al., 2018; Clark & Chalmers, 1998;
Menary, 2010) found in externalist theories of mind, wherein cognitive
systems extend into the external environment and are comprised of both
neural and external components such as smartphones (see Chapter 3 of this
book) and even other people.

7.2.3 Implications for Cyber-Spectrum Disorders

Experiencing cyber-addictions and problematic reliance on technologies is
similar to finding oneself caught in a spider’s web. Given the discussion in
Chapter 3 and 4 related to technologies of the extended mind and the
ethical implications that algorithmic devices can have for our brain pro-
cesses, it follows that technologies can become so integrated into our lives
that they act like Menary’s (2007) spider and its prey-catching web system –
a system that is not bounded by the body of the user but includes the web

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 Problematic Internet Use, Online Gambling, Smartphones & Games 133
of technologies that make up our increasingly digital existence. The
Internet, smartphones, wearable devices, and video games are all aspects
of our activities of daily living, and they allow for continuous connections
to online information, social media, and computational applications that
shape and support the course of our daily activities and relations (Smart,
Clowes, & Heersmink, 2017). The conceptualization of digital technol-
ogies as extensions of our cognitive processes within an infosphere rather
than as tools leads to a reconceptualization of problematic uses of the
Internet, online gambling, smartphones, and video games. If the Internet
and related technologies are not just tools to be utilized, the theoretical
models supporting addictive behaviors may need some fresh
consideration.

7.2.4 Variable-Ratio Schedules

Social media platforms have a strong impact on users because affirma-
tions from social media (e.g., likes, text chimes, ringtones) from other
users occur only sporadically. From a behavioral perspective, this rate of
online reinforcement represents a variable-ratio schedule that produces
the sort of high steady rate of responding found in gambling and lottery
games. How does this reward system become activated for social media
users? The answer is that social media platforms (e.g., Facebook) have
multiple variable-ratio reinforcement schedules built into them – I could
receive a “like,” a friend request, a comment on the My Status update, or
be tagged in a photo. Any of these situations (among the many other
possible) might place me in a state of anticipation. This variable-ratio
pattern of reinforcement can be more addicting than receiving affirma-
tion every time because (at least in part) my brain endeavors to predict
rewards. In variable-ratio reward schedules, the brain cannot find the
pattern and it will promote a behavior until it finds a pattern. In situa-
tions where the rewards (e.g., affirmations, chimes) are random, the
brain’s attempt at pattern recognition may continue compulsively. The
activation of the reward network via variable-ratio schedules may help to
explain the increasing usage trend that is apparent in recent years.
Moreover, variable-ratio schedules may help to explain the increased
instances of social media use resulting in cyber-addiction. Excessive social
media use can become a serious problem. It may be the case that self-
disclosing and subsequent activation of the reward pathways in the brain
is linked to the development of cyber-addiction (for more on this, see
Parsons, 2017).

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 134 Ethical Cyberpsychology Research and Interventions
7.2.5 The Brain’s Reward System
What happens in the person’s brain when he or she sees someone “like”
their post on a social media site? The answer may involve a part of the
ventral striatum that lies in a region in the basal forebrain rostral to the
preoptic area of the hypothalamus. Specifically, the reinforcing effect that
occurs when a person experiences a “like” reflects activity in the nucleus
accumbens. The nucleus accumbens has an important role in the neuro-
cognitive processing of reward, pleasure, reinforcement learning, aversion,
and motivation. Dopamine acts in the nucleus accumbens to attach motiva-
tional significance to stimuli associated with reward. Dopaminergic neurons
found in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) connect via the mesolimbic
pathway and modulate the activity of neurons within the nucleus accum-
bens that are activated directly or indirectly by drugs such as opiates and
amphetamines (see Parsons, 2017).
Video game play has also been found to result in substantial
dopamine release in the dopaminergic system as well as addiction
(for a review, see Parsons, 2017). Results from neuroimaging studies
have revealed that video game play activates the brain’s motivational
systems. In an early positron emission tomography study, Koepp and
colleagues (1998) found large releases of striatal dopamine in partici-
pants playing an action video game (note, that there is need for further
replication). Furthermore, Hoeft and colleagues (2008) used functional
magnetic resonance imaging of participants as they performed a simple
computer game. Results revealed brain activation in regions typically
associated with reward and addiction: the nucleus accumbens and
orbitofrontal cortex. The orbitofrontal cortex is involved in the coding
of stimulus–reward value and, along with the ventral striatum (i.e., the
nucleus accumbens), is implicated in representing predicted future
reward. Ventral striatal reward–related activation in video games has
been found when the player’s rewards (winning) were coupled to the
observed rewards of another player (Kätsyri et al., 2013).
As mentioned (see Figure 7.1), Matthias Brand and colleagues (2016)
have developed an I-PACE model of specific Internet-use disorders. The
model emphasizes relations among predisposing neurobiological and psy-
chological factors that impact affective and cognitive responses (e.g.,
reduced executive functioning) to situational triggers in combination.
According to Brand and colleagues (2016), conditioning may enhance
the neurobiological and psychological associations found in the reinforce-
ment circle of addiction (see Figure 7.2).

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 Problematic Internet Use, Online Gambling, Smartphones & Games 135
Reductions of
executive
Affective and cognitive functions/
responses to external inhibitory control
or internal triggers

Internet-related cognitive
bias and coping style Using a certain application

Gratification

Compensation

Figure 7.2 The reinforcement circle representing a temporal dynamic of the

affective and cognitive contributions to cyber-addictions (from Brand et al., 2016;
reprinted with permission from the publisher)
Note that the emboldened lines with arrows denote the primary pathways of the
addiction process. It is also important to note that the unemboldened lines with
arrows represent the added connections that cultivate within the addiction process.

The Internet, smartphones, and video games are so prevalent in the

social environment and have become so integrated into our cognitive
systems that they are prime external factors through which our brains
relate to and structure external representations. Smartphone GPS,
Facebook, Google, and other aspects of the Internet are impacting people’s
brains and extending cognitive processes (Clowes, 2013). While this can
enhance one’s life, the pervasive and covert influences can also be disrup-
tive to a user’s autonomy. Constant exposure to algorithms and algorith-
mic devices aimed at manipulating thoughts and behaviors brings with it
a host of ethical concerns and dilemmas.

7.3 Positive Computing, Aristotelian Virtue Ethics, and

Well-Being
While there certainly are persons who problematically use and overuse
the Internet and related technologies (e.g., smartphones, video games),
not everyone that actively engages in social media and video games is
expressing addictive behaviors. Instead, it is better to consider these
behaviors on a spectrum (i.e., cyber-spectrum disorders). Otherwise,
we may pathologize what is increasingly normal behavior. If cyberp-
sychologists interested in cyber-spectrum disorders do not consider the
Internet, smartphones, wearable devices, and video games to make up

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 136 Ethical Cyberpsychology Research and Interventions
much of the current infosphere, they run the risk of pathologizing
everyday behaviors. This sentiment reflects recent conclusions made by
Billieux, Thorens, and colleagues (2015) following their study on
problematic involvement in online games:
To conclude, we would like to emphasize the current trend to consider
a high commitment to (or a passion for) a wide range of daily or leisure
activities such as video game playing as “behavioral addictions” . . . Indeed,
in the recently released DSM-5, Internet gaming disorder was proposed as
a tentative new psychiatric condition and conceptualized as an addictive
disorder. Besides this evolution leading to growing pathologization of every-
day behaviors, it also neglects the evidence that excessive behaviors (e.g.,
playing video games, gambling, eating, shopping) are heterogeneous and
multi-determined. (p. 249)
In a paper discussing the overpathologizing of everyday life and behaviors,
Billieux, Schimmenti, and colleagues (2015b) argue that the label “beha-
vioral addiction” is often applied incorrectly to conduct that is simply
beyond the norm. They give the following as examples: compulsive buying
(shopaholics), binge eating (overeating), excessive work involvement
(workaholics), hypersexuality, and excessive physical exercise. They point
out that the criteria commonly used for identifying behavioral addictions
lend themselves to pathologizing excessive involvement in any type of
activity as a psychiatric disorder (Billieux, Schimmenti et al., 2015b).
From an ethical perspective, this practice is similar to that found in the
work of positive psychologists such as Martin Seligman and Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi (2000) who aimed “to catalyze a change in the focus of
psychology from preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life
to also building positive qualities” (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000,
p. 5). Laura King (2011), at the University of Missouri, is a positive psychol-
ogist interested in Aristotle’s (350 bce/1998 ce) virtue ethics and the mean-
ing of happiness. King (2011) points out that a rift in positive psychology has
led to bifurcating happiness into hedonic well-being (shallow, fleeting, and
subjective) and eudaimonic well-being (deeper and less morally ambiguous).
With her colleagues (Biswas-Diener, Kashdan, & King, 2009; Kashdan,
Biswas-Diener, & King, 2008), King has suggested that this division of
happiness into hedonic and eudaimonic well-being is ill-advised. In addition
to eudaimonic well-being lacking a specific definition, hedonic and eudai-
monic well-being overlap considerably, conceptually, and empirically. In
fact, she points to the lack of evidence for a qualitative difference between the
happiness that arises from what positive psychologists call eudaimonic
activities and the happiness that emerges otherwise.

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 Problematic Internet Use, Online Gambling, Smartphones & Games 137
An application of positive psychology to the digital era is the emerging
dialogue in the cyberpsychology community related to positive comput-
ing. In 2012, world-renowned cyberpsychologists from Italy (Giuseppe
Riva and Andrea Gaggioli), Spain (Christina Botella, Mariano Alcaniz,
and Rosa Baños), and Belgium (Brenda Wiederhold, also in the United
States) published a paper on the present and future of positive technolo-
gies. In this paper, Botella and colleagues (2012) define positive technology
as “the scientific and applied approach for improving the quality of our
personal experience with the goal of increasing wellness, and generating
strengths and resilience in individuals, organizations, and society” (p. 78).
They classify positive technologies according to their objectives.
Technologies of Aristotle’s hedonic well-being for “the enjoying self”
include those devices that aim to produce positive changes in mood states.
For example, the group in Spain developed the Engaging Media for Mental
Health Applications (EMMA) that used Virtual Emotional Parks that
combined mood induction procedures with virtual reality to induce posi-
tive emotions (happiness and relaxation). Likewise, Riva’s group in Italy
developed Relaxation Island, a mood device that uses virtual reality and
interactive digital media to enhance users’ mood states. There are also
technologies of Aristotle’s eudaimonic well-being for the “the growing self”
that were designed to support individuals in reaching engaging and self-
actualizing experiences. For example, the authors developed an application
called Emotional Activities Related to Health (EARTH) within the frame-
work of the MARS500 research project that aims to assist astronauts for
a future mission to Mars. The EARTH system includes the virtual envir-
onments and mood induction procedures to focus on significant events of
one’s life experiences and also one’s future plans.

7.4 Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics and Problematic Uses of Digital

Technologies
How does Aristotle’s virtue ethics relate to the discussion of problematic
uses of the Internet, online gambling, smartphones, and video games?
First, there is the issue of recognizing that, instead of placing persons
into a box of “addicted” or “nonaddicted,” it may be better to consider
users of technology as falling on a cyber-spectrum of disorder from heavy
use to problematic use. Moreover, a “spectrum” implies wide variation in
the type and severity of symptoms people experience and allows for
theoretical formulations that include all ethnic, racial, and economic
groups.

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 138 Ethical Cyberpsychology Research and Interventions
A second consideration for understanding Aristotle’s virtue ethics in
terms of a cyber-spectrum is that the Internet and related technologies
(e.g., smartphones and video games) are increasingly being viewed as a new
type of cognitive ecology that provides almost constant access to digital
information and results in increased extension of our cognitive processes.
The Internet, smartphones, and video games are so prevalent and inte-
grated into our social-cognitive systems that they are prime external factors
through which our brains relate to and structure external representations.
The use of smartphones, GPS applications, social networking sites, and
other aspects of the Internet will increasingly impact people’s brains and
extend cognitive processes. What may look like behavioral addiction to an
octogenarian may look like the norm for that vast majority of millennials.
Likewise, what appears to be a persistent use of technologies today prob-
ably pales in comparison to the human–computer interfaces that will be
experienced by persons a generation from now. So, an important question
for pathologizing technology use is whether it actually represents
a neurobiological compulsion or simply the logical outworking of
a spectrum of technology use in our normal everyday lives.
This leads to a third consideration for Aristotelian virtue, happiness, and
leading the good life. Again, while there are studies pointing to problematic
findings related to technology use, it can be difficult to see the positive
among all the negative conclusions. This is compounded by the fact that
much of what is called “addiction” or “problematic” may reflect the over-
pathologizing of everyday activities. Examples of this can be seen in Billieux,
Philippot, and colleagues’ (2015c) discussion of whether too much use of
smartphones can be classified as a behavioral addiction (for critical discus-
sions, see Billieux, Schimmenti et al., 2015b; Mihordin, 2012). They con-
cluded that conceptualizing excessive behaviors (e.g., smartphone use)
within an addiction model can be a simplification of an individual’s psy-
chological functioning, contributing to incomplete clinical significance.
What about someone spending hours and hours on Internet gaming?
Does this person have an Internet gaming disorder along the lines of the
“addiction model”? Is this person following Aristotle’s virtue model and
exhibiting superior levels of motivational, affective, cognitive, interperso-
nal, and social striving as they aim to be the best gamer possible? Recent
research emphasizes the need for cyberpsychologists to consider the func-
tions and individual motives that drive online gaming to ascertain whether
they are in fact being used excessively. Labels of “dysfunctional” gaming
may suggest that the Internet gamer is using an avoidance strategy to keep
from facing negative life events, when, in fact, the gamer desires to attain

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 Problematic Internet Use, Online Gambling, Smartphones & Games 139
exceptional game performance with achievements that go beyond the
norm (e.g., having a commanding avatar or becoming a guild master for
a well-respected guild; see Billieux et al., 2013).
Barna Konkolÿ Thege and colleagues (2015), at the University of
Calgary, completed a five-year longitudinal study on the natural course
and impact of several behaviors that have been considered behavioral
addictions in the literature (i.e., exercising, sexual behavior, shopping,
online chatting, video gaming, problem eating behaviors). Results revealed
that the excessive involvement in these behaviors tends to be rather
transient for most individuals. Hence, the oft-labeled “excess” of such
behaviors that have been suggestive of addiction in the literature may
often reflect context-dependent and transient states with frequent sponta-
neous recovery.

7.5 Ethical Design

As mentioned in the previous sections, a set of factors that arguably
contribute to legitimate cases of problematic uses of the Internet, online
gambling, smartphones, and video games is that these technologies are
often designed in ways to reward use. What happens when an individual
receives a “like” to their posted content on a Facebook page? Typically, this
represents a rewarding experience for the person and promotes further
social networking. When a person sees a friend “like” their Facebook post,
a change happens in that person’s brain. This change may reflect activity in
the nucleus accumbens, which has an important role in the neurocognitive
processing of reward, pleasure, reinforcement learning, aversion, and
motivation. Dopamine acts in the nucleus accumbens to attach motiva-
tional significance to stimuli associated with reward. Given that social
affirmation tends to be a rewarding experience for the vast majority of
users, it is not surprising that Facebook affirmations would result in
activation of the nucleus accumbens. Moreover, the prefrontal cortex
and amygdala share interconnections with the ventral tegmental area and
nucleus accumbens and can modulate dopamine transmission and neuro-
nal activity. It is important to note, however, that just because these areas
have been found to be associated with Facebook “likes,” activation alone is
not sufficient for the establishment of an addiction. Nevertheless, brain
activations in these areas do raise an interesting possibility that Facebook
“likes” and other affirmations (e.g., a chime for an incoming text or email)
are powerful stimuli. Internet applications, social media (e.g., Facebook,
Twitter), smartphone applications, laptops, PCs, and game consoles all

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 140 Ethical Cyberpsychology Research and Interventions
provide us with the reinforcements we are biologically programmed to
need and desire. For example, connecting with others socially is a deeply
rooted desire in humans and our brains have evolved to release the
dopamine reward every time we use these technologies.

7.5.1 Neurobiologically Tuned Algorithms for Manipulating Users

An important issue for the discussion of the ethical aspects of these digital
technologies is that many designers realize how brains operate and they are
faced with whether or not it is moral to manipulate users with this knowl-
edge. For example, affirmations from social media (e.g., “likes,” text
chimes, ringtones) from other users occur only sporadically. From
a cyberpsychology and behavioral perspective, this rate of online reinforce-
ment represents a variable-ratio schedule that produces the sort of high
steady rate of responding found in gambling and lottery games. As intro-
duced in Section 7.2.4, the same variable-ratio reinforcement schedules can
be found in social media platforms like Facebook. Receiving a “like,”
a friend request, a comment on the user’s status update, or being tagged
in a photo can place the user in a state of anticipation.

7.5.2 Corporate Capitalization on Brain Manipulation and

Ethical Egoism
What would happen if corporations that focused on establishing and
maintaining user traffic were to discover these neurocognitive findings?
They would of course adopt these principles and exploit them to make
money. According to Liu and Li (2016), “It is every manufacturer’s desire
to drive its target customers to form a long-term habit of regularly using its
product. Previous studies indicate that the habit of using a certain product
can indeed by formed in a systemic manner, once the right sequence is
followed” (p. 119). One of the most obvious habit-forming techniques
known to programmers is the well-timed push notification and it describes
the following sequence. Nir Eyal (2014) actually wrote what is now
considered a seminal description of tricks for building habit-forming
products. According to the “Hooked Model,” it all starts with what Eyal
calls the “trigger” and the model is comprised of four sequential but
interrelated phases:
1) Trigger phase: a trigger (internal and/or external) notifies the user
what should be done next and how it should be done (i.e., how to act).

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 Problematic Internet Use, Online Gambling, Smartphones & Games 141
2) Action phase: the user acts on the information offered by the trigger.
3) Reward phase: the user is rewarded on a variable schedule for acting
on the above triggered behavior.
4) Investment phase: the increased time and effort of the user making
use of the product increases the user’s valuation of the product.
The main point is that habits are initiated by a trigger. This means
a specific chunk of data explicitly prompts the user to act. Although
notifications are not the only kind of trigger, they may be the most
prevalent in the “stickiest” products in use. The capacity of notifications
to prompt action on them just cost a mere tap on the screen. Smartphone
applications are designed to use push notifications for increased pervasive-
ness (Oulasvirta et al., 2012). Moreover, social media applications such as
Facebook are designed to be habit-forming and notifications are
a significant aspect of that approach.
This practice is so successful that entire companies have been formed to
optimize push notifications. Take, for example, Dopamine Labs (also
known as Boundless Mind: www.boundless.ai/), a company that sells
neurobiologically tuned algorithms for manipulating users to the applica-
tion developers. The company provides services to help application devel-
opers design addicting applications. Dopamine Labs and its clients are not
concerned with whether you develop bad habits or if their technologies
lead to problematic uses of the Internet, online gambling, smartphones,
and video games. Strangely enough, the company is open to making
money off persons who they have helped to addict. They have created an
application called Space that reduces the drive to continue a behavior.
While it seems hard to justify the design of manipulative technologies
using traditional approaches found in moral philosophy, there may be some
support from ethical egoism. The ethical egoist holds that each person ought
always to do those acts that will best serve his or her own best self-interest.
This is to be differentiated from psychological egoism, which is a theory
about how persons do in fact behave. Instead, ethical egoism is a theory
about one’s moral obligation to seek one’s own self-interest. The rightness or
wrongness of one’s conduct depends on fulfilling one’s own self-interest.
Adam Smith (1776) promoted an egoistic approach toward morality
grounded on the economic benefits that this would convey to society.
Smith advocated individual self-interest in a competitive marketplace to
engender a state of optimal goodness for society as a whole. According to
Smith, competition causes each individual to generate a better product and
market it at a lower price than competitors. For example, if a persuasive

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 142 Ethical Cyberpsychology Research and Interventions
technologies company plans to outlast the competition, they will need to
find ways of making their application better and selling it for less money to
get more client companies. The persuasive technologies company gains but
so too does the client company. Thus, the persuasive technologies company’s
self-interest leads to the best overall situation for the industry. For Smith, this
was best described as an “invisible hand” that almost numinously guides the
economy when we pursue our self-interest. To some extent, Smith’s eco-
nomic argument is more of an argument for utilitarian use of self-interest to
attain the good of all.
So, perhaps we should look at the more straightforward brand of egoism
found in Ayn Rand’s (1964) virtue of selfishness. Rand contends that
selfishness is a virtue and altruism a vice. For Rand, altruism erodes one’s
ability to understand the value of an individual life. Instead of altruism,
Rand argued that persons ought to profit from their own actions.
Moreover, Rand believed that we have an inalienable right to seek our
own happiness and fulfillment, regardless of its effects on others. Hence,
a technology designer or company that designs applications should not
worry about the impacts on others. Instead, the duty is to the self.

7.5.3 Technological Design and the Societal Dimension

There are of course opponents to this perspective. According to Grunwald
(2014), technology should not be considered to be detached from the
societal dimension. Instead, technological design decisions are morally
relevant and ethical considerations should be involved in the design
process. Likewise, Von Schomberg (2014) shares this value-laden perspec-
tive of technological development and contends that ethics should be
included in the design process. Doing so can lead to greater acceptance
of designs and technologies. Moreover, ethical reflection on persuasive
technologies should take into account the intentions of the persuaders,
behavioral and attitudinal aims of the persuasive technology, and methods
of persuasion (Berdichevsky & Neuenschwander, 1999; Fogg, 2002).
Jilles Smids (2012) of Eindhoven University of Technology, in the
Netherlands, has argued that the most significant ethical question
concerning persuasive technologies is the voluntariness of changes
they bring about. According to Smids, “voluntary change brought
about by a persuasive technology (PT) implies both the absence of
controlling influences like manipulation and coercion, and an agent
who acts intentional in changing his behavior” (p. 123). Smids aims to
differentiate among persuasive technologies that aim at voluntary

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 Problematic Internet Use, Online Gambling, Smartphones & Games 143
changes, coercive technologies that aim to control users by application
of credible threat, and manipulative technologies that aim to control
users by covertly influencing users without the user’s awareness or
ability to control. For Smids, voluntariness requires that the user be
free from external controlling influences. Smids points to autonomy
and freedom as fundamental values in Western societies. As such, users
of persuasive technologies have a prima facie and foundational right
not to be manipulated in ways that violate voluntariness. This is true
even in cases where the intentions behind the manipulation and its
aims are praiseworthy. According to Smids, the ends of an involuntary
persuasive technology simply do not immediately justify their means;
additional justification is needed.
Smids looks to Nelson and colleagues’ (2011) bioethical analysis of
voluntariness in informed consent. Nelson and colleagues argue that an
action is voluntary if, and only if, the action is
1) intentional (i.e., agent has intentional control); and
2) unrestricted (i.e., substantially free of controlling influences).
For example, if Tommy decides to get away from social media for
a while and closes his smartphone to focus on his schoolwork, he is acting
intentionally. If Tommy is prevented from studying by notifications from
his smartphone that were initiated by a manipulative technology algorithm
aimed at prompting users to check their phone when it has gone idle, then
Tommy is subject to a controlling influence.

7.6 Conclusions
As mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, problematic uses of the
Internet, online gambling, smartphones, and video games are all receiving
increasing recognition as potential public health burdens. Regardless of
disagreements about diagnostic categories, Internet gaming disorder has
been categorized in the revised Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders as a condition for further study and excessive technology use
often co-occurs in people with psychiatric conditions. That said, the issues
surrounding problematic uses of the Internet, online gambling, smart-
phones, and video games are multifaceted, with several facets coming into
play in assorted ways.
These issues are compounded by the fact that the Internet is increasingly
discussed as a new type of cognitive ecology that provides almost constant
access to digital information that increasingly extends our cognitive

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 144 Ethical Cyberpsychology Research and Interventions
processes. The Internet, smartphones, and video games are so prevalent in
the social environment and they have become so integrated into our
cognitive systems that they are prime external factors through which our
brains relate to and structure external representations. Smartphone GPS,
Facebook, Google, and other aspects of the Internet are impacting people’s
brains and extending cognitive processes.
The implications for cyber-spectrum disorders include a recognition
that the Internet, smartphones, wearable devices, and video games are all
aspects of our activities of daily living, and they allow for continuous
connections to online information, social media, and computational appli-
cations that shape and support the course of our daily activities and
relations. By moving from the idea that digital technologies are simply
tools to conceiving of them the as extensions of our cognitive processes
within an infosphere can influence our discussion of problematic uses of
these technologies (e.g., Internet, online gambling, smartphones, and
video games). Moreover, this can adjust the way we think about theoretical
models supporting addictive behaviors.
If cyberpsychologists interested in cyber-spectrum disorders do not
consider the Internet, smartphones, wearable devices, and video games to
make up much of the current infosphere, they run the risk of pathologizing
everyday behaviors. Instead of pathologizing behaviors, it may be better to
consider these behaviors on a spectrum (i.e., cyber-spectrum disorders).
That said, there are concerns related to the ethical design of technologies
that may lead to legitimate cases of problematic uses of the Internet, online
gambling, smartphones, and video games, namely that these technologies
are often designed in ways to reward use.

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