ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to determine the extent to which Internet usage is contributing to challenges in couple and family life, part of the conversation has to be whether Internet usage is a symptom of a larger problem or whether Internet usage is in and of itself the primary issue. When the Internet is introduced into the clinical setting, it leads clinicians to inappropriate conclusions about how to navigate treatment, potentially ascribing the Internet as the cause of the problem. The rise of the Internet and its insertion into the everyday life have created a near-dependence on the Internet to function in society. As with the “Internet addiction” inventories, there are a host of inventories that attempt to measure so-called “sexual addiction” on the Internet, and most notably, the concept of cybersex. The challenge in identifying problematic behavior is further confused by multiple terms—such as Internet dependence, addiction, and pathological Internet use.
