The American Medical Association decided this week not to press ahead with a recommendation to the American Psychiatric Association that video game addiction be labelled as a formal mental health disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The association also decided against urging parents to limit children to a total of two hours per day of playing video games, watching television and surfing the Internet.

Is the amount of time you spend online impacting negatively on your well-being? According to the first nationwide study attempting to quantify ‘internet addiction’ in the general population, between 6 percent and 14 percent of computer users say they spend too much time with online activities, to the detriment of work, relationships, and even food and sleep.