We all know at some level that compulsive use of mobile internet is a widespread problem for a lot of people. But, for starters, the word "addiction" sometimes feels like a bad fit. Nobody is stealing copper pipes to pay for more mobile data, at least not that I have heard of. So I understand why there is resistance to the term. And I understand why someone who struggles with, for example, heroin addiction would object to smartphones being thrown in the same category as their disease.
But are there people dropping out of school and losing jobs because their compulsive mobile internet use took so much of their attention that they couldn't function normally? There are probably no empirical studies on this yet. But observationally, I would not be surprised if it was a trend. If you spend enough time on reddit you will (ironically enough) find communities full of people discussing exactly how this kind of thing happened to them. And you will find people who spent $500 binging on lootboxes in a mobile game and now they need to figure out how to pay their rent this month....
When I am driving down the highway and pass a slow car, and see the driver watching netflix while driving 70 miles an hour, and when I see this happen on a regular basis, it is hard to call it anything other than an addiction. Surely that person knows, rationally, that they should not be watching TV while driving a car. But they do this self-harming behavior anyway because they can't stop - that's what addiction looks like.
I wonder if South Korea has any different language or cultural values around compulsive smartphone use that has made it easier for them to address the issue?What do we need to do in order to help people talk about this and describe their experience with this growing trend?