There have been a few stories in the press in the last couple of days that "excessive" internet use is associated with depression (e.g the Guardian or Science Daily ). "While many of us use the internet to pay bills, shop and send emails, there is a small subset of the population who find it hard to control how much time they spend online, to the point where it interferes with their daily activities." These 'internet addicts' spent proportionately more time browsing sexually gratifying websites, online gaming sites and online communities. They also had a higher incidence of moderate to severe depression than non-addicted users. "Our research indicates that excessive internet use is associated with depression, but what we don't know is which comes first -- are depressed people drawn to the internet or does the internet cause depression? (Ah, there is that old causation vs correlation thing again!) The abstract is here if you are interested. Anywa...