Is Internet addiction a legitimate mental-health disorder? That's the focus of a segment with NBC chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman, MD, airing tonight on Rock Center with Brian Williams. (For the record, the American Psychiatric Association is labeling "Internet-use disorder" as a condition "recommended for further study" in the new version of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders.")
Among those on the show will be Stanford psychiatrist Elias Aboujaoude, MD, an expert on compulsive disorders and behavioral addictions and author of a book on the dark side of the Internet. Aboujaoude believes there's something different about the way the Internet, compared to other mediums such as TV and radio, attracts people:
It's different in that it engages you a lot more. You're immersed in it. It talks back to you. It's also different in terms of its penetrance, how incredibly common it is and how much access we have to it.
Rock Center with Brian Williams airs at 10 PM (9 PM Central time) on NBC.
Previously: Ask Stanford Med: Answers to your questions on the psychological effects of Internet use, Ask Stanford Med: Stanford psychiatrist taking questions on psychological effects of Internet use, Exploring the Internet’s dark side, Virtually You: The dangerous powers of the E-Personality and Stanford psychiatrist explores how people’s online personas affect their real-world lives
