A bibliometric analysis of global trends in internet addiction publications from 1996 to 2022

Background: As the use of technology has increased, a set of problematic psychological behaviors associated with internet use has evolved. This bibliometric research aims to discover and analyze internet addiction (IA) articles trends from 1996 to 2022. Methods: This research is based on a bibliometric examination of internet addiction papers published between 1996 and 2022. The Scopus database was utilized to extract the needed documents, examine citation patterns and publication growth, and identify prolific authors and institutions. Results: There were 9692 publications on internet addiction from 1996 to 2022, with an average of 359 documents each year. A total of 21906 authors contributed to the literature, with the majority of publications (86.9%) being multi-authored. The United States (US) ranked first in terms of volume of publications (18.8%, n = 1819), followed by China (12.3%, n = 1194), the United Kingdom (8.3%, n = 808), and Turkey (6.2%, n = 602). However, the majority of the productive institutions were located in East Asia. Conclusion: There is a substantial body of literature on internet addiction, with numerous worldwide collaborations. As IA will be a lingering problem with the increased digitization of all sectors, future research should focus on emerging topics such as social media and gaming addiction. Internet addiction among adolescents in particular is a key research area.