This article presents the characteristics of addiction, cognitive behavior, and social cognitive perspectives, which are the mainstream views of maladaptive Internet use. As the academic branch dealing with mental health, such as psychology and psychiatry, first raised the issue of maladaptive Internet use and continued research, views in the context of mental health, such as addiction and cognitive behavior perspectives, have become mainstream. The mental health perspective, however, shows considerable limitations in that maladaptive Internet use has extensive and multifaceted attributes with the changes in the ecosystem surrounding digital technology and the industry. As an alternative to the mainstream views, this article presents a digital economy perspective and suggests that mental health and digital economy perspectives can be complementary for the future research.