In a weird way, stories like this remind me just how amazing the internet and games have become. The fact that people can become so immersed into the experience that their brain mimics chemical addiction is mind blowing.
It's an interesting phenomenon, but I'm not sure it has much to do with the internet or technology. People have gotten addicted to gambling on slot machines and poker tables, so the level of technological advancement needed to mimic chemical addiction doesn't even require entering the transistor age.
It's not that the internet and games are amazing; it's that they have been custom-tailored to feed specific pathways in our minds and hook right in to our addictive natures.
Instant gratification may as well be a Schedule I narcotic.
