The Internet is not a tool: Reappraising the model for Internet-Addiction Disorder based on the constraints and opportunities of the digital environment

The extent of digital information in every sphere of people’s lives has caused the integration of the Internet into the cognitive tasks people performing their daily routines, leading to the consideration of the Internet as part of an extended concept of cognition (Smart et al., 2017). The concept of the Internet as a tool to connect to a virtual reality that is separate from the real world is no longer current, so a new concept of the Internet that takes its environmental features into account is needed. This concept is in line with Floridi’s (2014) idea of an infosphere that shapes people’s reality. The conceptualization of the Internet as an environment rather than as a tool leads to the reformulation of IAD theory. If the Internet is not just a tool to be utilized, the theoretical model of IAD cannot be based on behavior connected to its overuse, misuse, or abuse. Musetti and Corsano The Internet as a Social Environment Based on this opinion, we present arguments in favor of reconsidering the Internet as an environment rather than as a tool. In the following section, we explore the Internet’s role in cognitive ecology, as well as the inadequacy of treating the Internet as a tool and thus of the current Internet-addiction model.