Personality, Internet Addiction, and Other Technological Addictions: A Psychological Examination of Personality Traits and Technological Addictions

Introduction

Recent figures suggest that 40% of the world’s population have access to the Internet, worldwide Internet usage has increased with 499 million Internet users in Europe, 647 million users in the Americas, 240 million users in Africa and 1.7 billion users in Asia and the Pacific region (International Telecommunication Union [ITU], 2016). When considering country specific data, 74% of individuals use the Internet in the United States of America (USA), 91% in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), 93% in Japan and 89% in South Korea (ITU, 2016). Although Internet use is usually beneficial and advantageous for most people (Howard, Wilding & Guest, 2016; Heo et al. 2015; Roy & Ferguson, 2016; Wiederhold, 2017), increased availability and high penetration rates across the globe can facilitate the emergence of excessive and addictive behaviors related to Internet use. Furthermore, many people appear to display impulsive, narcissistic and aggressive personalities online which can be nurtured by various Internet technologies (Aboujaoude, 2017).