A new study by academics at the University of Duisburg-Essen, published in the journal PLOS One, surveyed 900 German adults in 2025 who reported engaging in gaming, pornography use, social network use, or online shopping at least once in the last year. Depending on the frequency of their usage, their internet use was labelled as either pathological, risky, or non-problematic. Problematic internet usage, which includes pathological and risky usage, was defined by the study as the excessive use of online applications to the point of functional impairment or distress.
Daily assessments over two weeks
The study’s participants completed an assessment every evening for two weeks, where they reported their mood and stress levels, temptation to engage in problematic internet use, and their total time spent on the internet more generally. The assessment also measured how much pleasure was derived from internet usage and whether any other activities were neglected as a result.
Participants with more severe problematic internet usage were associated with worse mood, more stress, longer internet use times and greater neglect of other areas of life. The study also found that temptation was the main driver for continued internet use, with feelings of pleasure and relief emerging as reinforcing factors.
Expert insights on temptation and strategies
Andreas Oelker, co-author of the study, said: “More than actual stress or mood alone, it is the momentary urge to go online that determines whether people engage in online activities and experience both rewarding and harmful consequences. Understanding why individuals at risk of problematic internet use go online at particular moments is essential for developing better prevention and treatment strategies. Our findings suggest that helping people recognise and manage moments of temptation may be more effective than focusing on stress or mood alone.”
The study’s results confirmed the researchers’ hypothesis that daily stress, mood and temptation could be used to predict a person’s daily internet usage, and further, how these factors in turn affect daily pleasure, relief and neglect of other activities. Researchers stress that not all types of internet usage have negative outcomes, but rather problematic or excessive usage.
Balanced perspective on internet use
Silke M. Müller, co-author of the study, said: “We’d like to note that only a small percentage of internet users develop pathological use patterns. Using the internet brings joy, fun, and/or relief from stress in an enriching way as long as other important areas of life are not systematically neglected. These areas include not only essential duties and responsibilities, but also other activities that have been proven to have a positive effect on our wellbeing and health, such as exercise, spending time outdoors, or doing things with friends.”
Previous studies have suggested that young people with internet addiction experience changes in their brain chemistry which could lead to more addictive behaviours, and that these effects were evident throughout multiple neural networks in the brain alongside increased activity in parts of the brain when participants were resting.
