Author Name: – Gauri Chadha, Dr. Samiksha Jain Date:- 21 March 2026
The Problematic Internet Use has become a major psychological and behavioral issue in the age of digital anthropology, especially among youthful and adolescent users of Internet technologies who spend a lot of time interacting with the Internet. The bad things that have come with the overuse of internet include anxiety, depression, loneliness and decreased academic or work performance. Given these concerns, the recent studies have become more prolific in examining protective psychosocial factors that can be used to decrease susceptibility to problematic internet behaviors. Spiritual well-being is one of those factors and it entails religiosity, existential well-being, meaning in life and self-transcendence. The current paper is a systematic literature review to establish the connection between problematic internet use and spiritual well-being. Major academic databases, such as Scopus, Web of science, PubMed, Psycinfo, and Google Scholar, were used to identify relevant studies using the PRISMA framework. One hundred and ten empirical studies that were published within the years 2016 and 2026 fulfilled the inclusion criterion and were reviewed. The results show that spiritual well-being has a negative and stable linkage with PIU, implying that highly spiritual-oriented and life-purpose people have lower chances of using the internet in a compulsive manner. Emotional regulation, self-control, moral values, and social connectedness are the other important psychosocial mediating mechanisms described in the review. On the whole, the research points out to the possibility of spirituality being a protective factor and encouraging healthy digital practices.
Keywords: spiritual well-being; problematic internet use; internet addiction; meaning in life; religiosity.
