Why do you think those stories weren't true? The median teenager in 2023 spent four hours per day on social media (https://news.gallup.com/poll/512576/teens-spend-average-hour...). It seems clear that internet addiction was real, and it just won so decisively that we accept it as a fact of life.
I agree completely (and I wasn't saying that either this story or the other stories weren't true, I think they're all true). We decided that the benefits of The Internet were worth a few people going off the rails and getting in way overboard.
We've had the same decision, with the same outcome, for a lot of other technologies too.
The journalist point is around the tone used. It's not so much "a few vulnerable people have, sadly, been caught by yet another new technology" as more "this evil new thing is hurting people".
Heavy use isn't the same as some of the scare stories they are referring to like people gaming so long in Internet cafes they die when they stand up or parents forgetting to feed their screaming children because they were distracted by being online.
That being said I agree with your point - many hours of braindrain recreation every day is worth noting (although not very different than the stats for tv viewing in older generations). I wonder if the forever online folks are also watching lots of tv or if it is more of a wash.
