Addiction to the 3-dimensional Internet: Estimated prevalence and relationship to real world addictions

Abstract

This study examined the prevalence of addiction to Second Life, the most prominent 3D virtual world, and found that approximately one-third of participants met criterion for Internet addiction or at-risk status on the internet addiction test (Young, K. (1998a). Caught in the net: How to recognize the signs of Internet Addiction and a winning strategy for recovery. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, Inc). Participants with higher levels of addiction were more likely to have resided in Second Life for a shorter period of time than non-compulsive users, stay logged on for lengthy periods of time, view sexual experience in Second Life as an important activity, and report experiencing stronger immersion and more benefits from using Second Life. In addition, moderate positive correlations were found between addiction to Second Life and various areas of compulsion in real life. These data provide the first assessment of the prevalence of addiction to the emerging 3D internet and serve as an empirical baseline as the number of users and graphical realism of 3D virtual worlds continues to grow.

• Internet addiction, 3-dimensional internet, prevalence, co-morbidity, immersive internet

Notes

Notes

1. Due to unequal ns between groups, the following formula was used to calculate contrast ts:

where λ_i= contrast weight for ith mean, M_i = mean of ith condition, n_i = sample size for ith condition, and S² = MS error (Rosenthal & Rosnow, 1991).