You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
socraticgadfly 's review for:
A solid look at current knowledge on behavioral addiction
This is a solid book on some of the latest findings of behavioral addiction, how it's like chemical/substance addiction in many ways, and how it's not, in some ways.
It focuses on addition to the Internet, and things related to it — Internet games (and a bit on non-Net computer games), the Internet of Things and wearable tech, etc. Through doing this, Alter illustrates pretty well that Internet addiction is indeed a "thing."
Indeed, the wearable tech part was the highlight of this book. Alter describes how it can trigger or extend addiction to exercis.
Alter also notes that older ideas on addiction, such as "the dopamine hypothesis," were a bit too simplistic, on both chemical and behavioral addictions.
And, while noting that we're still fairly much in the woods on how to treat this, Alter does describe three different methodologies, and visits "rehab centers" for two of them in the US. (Some reviewers claim he doesn't talk a lot about how to treat it, but ... that's because we don't yet know more; look at our relative paucity, to this day, on chemical addictions treatment.)
That said, while this is solid, and while it probably would be near-impossible to write a five-star book, I think he could have incorporated more from more different types of past behavioral addiction to shed a bit more light. He does talk a fair amount about gambling, but, anorexia, bulimia, the two paired, and other food issues are basically absent.
This is a solid book on some of the latest findings of behavioral addiction, how it's like chemical/substance addiction in many ways, and how it's not, in some ways.
It focuses on addition to the Internet, and things related to it — Internet games (and a bit on non-Net computer games), the Internet of Things and wearable tech, etc. Through doing this, Alter illustrates pretty well that Internet addiction is indeed a "thing."
Indeed, the wearable tech part was the highlight of this book. Alter describes how it can trigger or extend addiction to exercis.
Alter also notes that older ideas on addiction, such as "the dopamine hypothesis," were a bit too simplistic, on both chemical and behavioral addictions.
And, while noting that we're still fairly much in the woods on how to treat this, Alter does describe three different methodologies, and visits "rehab centers" for two of them in the US. (Some reviewers claim he doesn't talk a lot about how to treat it, but ... that's because we don't yet know more; look at our relative paucity, to this day, on chemical addictions treatment.)
That said, while this is solid, and while it probably would be near-impossible to write a five-star book, I think he could have incorporated more from more different types of past behavioral addiction to shed a bit more light. He does talk a fair amount about gambling, but, anorexia, bulimia, the two paired, and other food issues are basically absent.