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300 reviews for:
Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked
Adam Alter
3.7 AVERAGE
300 reviews for:
Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked
Adam Alter
3.7 AVERAGE
Great book. Tons of extremely fascinating information on addiction and technology.
Fair amount of fear mongering combined with pop psychology. This is mostly a collection of tangential stories about technology and addiction. Nothing new, and no real interesting analysis. Go read The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu instead
The facts and studies in this book are interesting but there's no thesis or through line. He writes about Olympic record setters and rat experiments and gambling but doesn't really tie them together.
It's a hacky attempt to be Malcom gladwell but with none of the charm.
And with the pace of technology, some parts are quickly out of date.
It's a hacky attempt to be Malcom gladwell but with none of the charm.
And with the pace of technology, some parts are quickly out of date.
A bit dated now, but there were some informative chapters I enjoyed and I found the book overall worth reading. Useful for critiquing our tech-filled world, and encouraging a more thoughtful approach to using our phones.
For anybody who wants to make an informed choice with more awareness about their own or their kids use of technology. This is the best kind of nonfiction book for me, so interesting I feel like I'm reading a pageturner. Although I normally read fiction in a matter of 1 or 2 days, nonfiction is much more likely to drag on for me. So, you're curious about why, when you step into a train/bus, you can only see a sea of head glancing down at their phones, read this book. If you're one in that sea, you've guessed it! Read it too.
I dropped reading this for a long while but had some time on a flight to listen to it again and found it entertaining enough to finish (the irony of listening to it on my phone is not lost on me). I particularly enjoyed the sections discussing video games, but I had a pervasive thought that I wished everything was more in-depth.
It felt like a drive by look at a lot of information that had more to it. Maybe I’m just too into this subject for a book that seems more surface/entry level. Names like Shigeru Miyamoto and Bennett Foddy had me perking up and waiting for more about them, only to be disappointed.
The discussion of clinics like reSTART to treat video game addiction were the most interesting and I want to learn more about them. I also was reassured in my decision to never touch MMO games.
On the other end, I was totally on the outside looking in with mobile games. As a PC/console gamer who only briefly dipped into mobile games with a couple of Star Wars games, I don’t get the appeal.
The sections on social media were also enlightening.
Overall an interesting, accessible read but don’t expect anything mind-blowing.
It felt like a drive by look at a lot of information that had more to it. Maybe I’m just too into this subject for a book that seems more surface/entry level. Names like Shigeru Miyamoto and Bennett Foddy had me perking up and waiting for more about them, only to be disappointed.
The discussion of clinics like reSTART to treat video game addiction were the most interesting and I want to learn more about them. I also was reassured in my decision to never touch MMO games.
On the other end, I was totally on the outside looking in with mobile games. As a PC/console gamer who only briefly dipped into mobile games with a couple of Star Wars games, I don’t get the appeal.
The sections on social media were also enlightening.
Overall an interesting, accessible read but don’t expect anything mind-blowing.
Wasn't what I thought it would be. Author kept going places, and I was bored out of my mind waiting for him to drive his point home. Waited too long for a punchline or conclusion that did not come. Also, at times I felt like I was being advertised/sold something.
I'm stamping a DO NOT RECOMMEND on this one. If you're looking for something in the genre, The Shallows's a much better book.
I'm stamping a DO NOT RECOMMEND on this one. If you're looking for something in the genre, The Shallows's a much better book.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Fascinating look at the rise of behavioral addictions. Because it was released in 2017, many of the websites and companies mentioned no longer exist while other tech has advanced since then. It’s really interesting to examine the factors that make games, work, technology addicting in my every day life.
Strong 4.5 stars. Really thought provoking and a great reminder for awareness of how much time we spend on technology, as well as a good insight on how to capture that behavior for more desirable applications such as learning or pain management.
I really enjoyed this book. It covers a broader range of topics than the others I've read on behavioral addiction so far. The book is more about behavioral addiction in general, and not so much about Big Tech, which I consider a missed opportunity. The diversity and quantity of the citations that were used to push the primary argument (the same as in the title) was lacking, but I didn't really mind. Based on reviews, it seems like poor citations may have been an issue in the author's previous book, which I haven't read, but I didn't really feel like it was much of an issue here other than the awkward re-usage of some quotes throughout the book and the author mis-labeling League of Legends as an MMO (the single mention of League of Legends). These just make it feel like the author is more of an outsider looking in, but it is still an interesting and informative read.
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Notes for self:
p. 74 : "It isn't enough to ply someone with a drug or a behavior - that person also has to learn that the experience is a viable treatment for whatever ails them psychologically."
p. 79 : "it was the association between an unfulfilled psychological need and a set of actions that assuaged that need in the short-term, but was ultimately harmful in the long-term."
p. 87 : "Even as you come to loathe Facebook or Instagram for consuming too much of your time, you continue to want updates as much as you did when they still made you happy."
p. 106 : "major life goals are by their nature a major source of frustration. Either you endure the anti-climax of succeeding, or you endure the disappointment of failing... we're living through an unprecedented age of goal culture - a period underscored by addictive perfectionism, self-assessment, more time at work, and less time at play."
p. 109 : "goals have become harder to escape, The Internet has exposed people to goals they barely knew existed... Where once you had to seek out new goals, today they land, often uninvited, in your inbox and on your screen."
p. 117 : "When you approach life as a sequence of milestones to be achieved, you exist 'in a state of near-continuous failure.' Almost all the time, by definition, you're not at the place you've defined as embodying accomplishment or success. And should you get there, you'll find you've lost the very thing that gave you a sense of purpose - so you'll formulate a new goal and start again."
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Notes for self:
p. 74 : "It isn't enough to ply someone with a drug or a behavior - that person also has to learn that the experience is a viable treatment for whatever ails them psychologically."
p. 79 : "it was the association between an unfulfilled psychological need and a set of actions that assuaged that need in the short-term, but was ultimately harmful in the long-term."
p. 87 : "Even as you come to loathe Facebook or Instagram for consuming too much of your time, you continue to want updates as much as you did when they still made you happy."
p. 106 : "major life goals are by their nature a major source of frustration. Either you endure the anti-climax of succeeding, or you endure the disappointment of failing... we're living through an unprecedented age of goal culture - a period underscored by addictive perfectionism, self-assessment, more time at work, and less time at play."
p. 109 : "goals have become harder to escape, The Internet has exposed people to goals they barely knew existed... Where once you had to seek out new goals, today they land, often uninvited, in your inbox and on your screen."
p. 117 : "When you approach life as a sequence of milestones to be achieved, you exist 'in a state of near-continuous failure.' Almost all the time, by definition, you're not at the place you've defined as embodying accomplishment or success. And should you get there, you'll find you've lost the very thing that gave you a sense of purpose - so you'll formulate a new goal and start again."