Internet and Facebook related images affect the perception of time

Even though there is a wealth of research on addiction and implicit measures, the effects of addiction on time perception are still unclear. Internal clock models separate the effects of attention and arousal which could have important implications for addiction research. The present study investigated whether Internet related stimuli can lead to distorted time perception. We found evidence that Internet and Facebook related stimuli can distort time perception due to attention and arousal related mechanisms. This highlights that Facebook related stimuli lead to an underestimation of time compared to Internet related stimuli, and both Facebook and Internet related stimuli were associated with better discriminability of time compared to matched neutral stimuli. Implications of these findings on addiction are discussed.