The Development of Digital Dependency: a Review of Current Foreign Research

The review is a description of studies related to the problem of digital addiction that have been conducted over the past five years and published in foreign journals. The main (traditional — Internet, gadget) addictions, as well as new (modern — stream) addictions are considered. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the process of emergence and development of digital addiction, as well as the consequences of the pandemic on its spread, is described. The most well-known methods for diagnosing addiction and their differences from each other are described. The results of studies that studied the socio-demographic characteristics associated with digital addiction are presented and contradictions in the research data are identified. A description of studies that established the relationship between digital addiction and personal (the Big Five model, motivation, self-control, and others), as well as socio-psychological (interpersonal relationships) characteristics is given. The conclusions record the main contradictions and further prospects for research related to the study of the problems of digital addiction.