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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
This book is essential reading. I can't stop thinking about it or talking about it. I particularly appreciate the way the book breaks down what appears to be a wild lack of willpower (I'm looking at myself!) into its component parts of behavioral addiction. I am thinking differently about the consequences of my screen time (and my children's) and about the approaches I take to curb my excess. Well-written, well-researched, well-timed. I will be giving out many copies of this book to family and friends!
informative
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
Years ago, when I was still a smoker, I learned something very wise about the nature of nicotine addiction: You don't smoke because you want the pleasure of a cigarette, you smoke because you smoked a half-hour ago and miss not smoking. That's it.
In his book Irresistible, which discusses technology and addiction, Adam Alter doesn't talk about smoking but he might as well have. The apps, games, and websites that people use incessantly, like Facebook, have learned to be as addictive as possible, sucking people in with notifications and updates and the false ideal of "human connectivity." Gambling away one's fortunes at a video poker machine in the back room of a casino is far different, on the surface, than checking Facebook 30 times a day. But the neural mechanism is the same.
Alter writes convincingly and clearly about this problem, mining real-life examples of video game addicts and other characters to prove his thesis. His conclusions, though, left me cold: Rather than encourage people to overcome their addictions through the use of reason, he suggests channeling the brain's addictive propensities toward more positive goals (i.e., like using games to encourage charitable giving or being more productive.) But does this ultimately solve the problem? I'm not convinced.
In his book Irresistible, which discusses technology and addiction, Adam Alter doesn't talk about smoking but he might as well have. The apps, games, and websites that people use incessantly, like Facebook, have learned to be as addictive as possible, sucking people in with notifications and updates and the false ideal of "human connectivity." Gambling away one's fortunes at a video poker machine in the back room of a casino is far different, on the surface, than checking Facebook 30 times a day. But the neural mechanism is the same.
Alter writes convincingly and clearly about this problem, mining real-life examples of video game addicts and other characters to prove his thesis. His conclusions, though, left me cold: Rather than encourage people to overcome their addictions through the use of reason, he suggests channeling the brain's addictive propensities toward more positive goals (i.e., like using games to encourage charitable giving or being more productive.) But does this ultimately solve the problem? I'm not convinced.
slow-paced
I wasn't expecting this to be so good. Alter does a phenomenal job of avoiding being preachy while offering concrete evidence to back up his claims. It's a great read for someone looking to get a high level explanation of how addicting technology can be. By using research based on products both inside and outside the tech industry, the book keeps a great pace with readers from all backgrounds and is more approachable. I'd highly recommend this book for anyone interested in a psychology book grounded in the science and research behind the dangers we face from products being designed to build addictive behaviors.
Maybe it's because I read this book 6 years after it was published and after finishing a Media degree, but I don't think it presented groundbreaking information. It was an aggregate of multiple studies, findings and phenomena whose effects could have been explored in more depth.
Fantastic look at digital technology and social media, the methods to make them hard to put down, the obsessive habits/addictions that are forming in us and what's happening to us. While not a clinical handbook on digital addiction, it's a comprehensive look at behaviors, mainly the most damaging. Highly recommended for basically everyone.