Researchers have identified three distinct drivers that make it difficult for people to stop scrolling through the internet, offering new insight into why compulsive online behavior develops in both adolescents and adults.
Professor Matthias Brand at the University of Duisburg-Essen led the study, which examined the mechanisms underlying problematic internet use. The research reveals that disengagement from screens becomes increasingly difficult due to interconnected psychological and behavioral factors.
The three drivers operate together to create a cycle that reinforces continued internet use. First, the reward system activates during online engagement, generating dopamine responses that create pleasurable sensations. This neurochemical reinforcement makes returning to the screen appealing.
Second, the loss of control emerges when users intend to limit their time but find themselves unable to stop. This gap between intention and action reflects weakened executive function and impulse inhibition.
Third, tolerance builds over time, requiring increasingly more screen time to achieve the same satisfaction. This escalation mirrors substance addiction patterns.
Brand's team documented how these factors interact. Initial casual use triggers reward pathways. Repeated engagement trains the brain to anticipate these rewards. Gradually, the prefrontal cortex loses its ability to regulate behavior, while craving intensifies. Users develop awareness they cannot control their habits but persist anyway, often despite experiencing negative consequences for sleep, relationships, and mental health.
The findings carry practical weight. Understanding these three mechanisms helps explain why simple willpower fails for many people. Addiction specialists can now target interventions more precisely. Parents and educators benefit from knowing that problematic use reflects underlying neurobiological changes, not moral weakness.
The research also contextualizes current policy debates around age restrictions. Since the mechanisms driving compulsive use operate across ages, limiting access for minors alone leaves the broader adult population vulnerable.
The study demonstrates that problematic internet use operates through the same addiction path