From Confucianism to Psychology: Rebooting Internet Addicts in China

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Coined in the 1990s, the term "Internet addiction" encapsulates a brief but influential human history of technological advancement and psychological development. However, most studies have treated Internet addiction as a "global" concept in the realm of science without taking into consideration its sociocultural meanings and local history. In China, obsessive online gaming behavior among youth is viewed as a national issue of public health and social control. This article examines the special development of interventions to address Internet addiction in China within a broader local history of culturally inflected social control, market reform, the one-child policy, and psychology. Based on historical review and ethnographic data from a treatment center specializing in Internet addiction, this article presents a deep analysis of what Internet addiction means in Chinese lives. It argues that Internet addiction is, in fact, a cultural idiom of distress related to social control rather than a universal syndrome of self-control. It represents the dynamic interactions between Confucian family values and market reform, the one-child policy, and recent trends in psychology and technology.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)328-350
Number of pages23
JournalHistory of Psychology
Volume22
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2019
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Chinese psychology
  • Internet addiction
  • Cultural idiom of distress
  • Family-based intervention
  • Social control

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