Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked Hardcover – March 7, 2017

In this compelling book, Adam Alter really made me think twice about where our society is going through the use of technology. His compelling words and statistics will completely change or further support your belief on electronic devices in this world we live in. At first I thought technology would just keep getting better as time would grow and it could develop positively towards everything from your health to the activities we do to entertain ourselves.Unfortunately this is not the case, it will destroy us and keep destroying our future generations to come. This book will be an eye opener and keep surprising you as you read further into it; ironically I was addicted to this book. Alter breaks up this book into three different parts; the basics of addiction, the engineering behind it, and the future of behavioral addiction in technology. The basics of addiction, part one, really clarifies and almost dumb down the definition of an addiction so the reader gets a basic and real understanding of what an addiction is. From there Alter really digs deep on the two sides of addiction; substance with physical things (drugs and alcohol) and a behavioral addiction explaining what each side is composed off and how they are similar but yet very different. This part truly helped me get a general understanding of what Alter was seeing and his perspective of things going forward in the book. Alter makes a statement in the book claiming "There's an addict in all of us" which surprised me that no matter what your personality traits or who you are we all can get hopelessly addicted to anything in this world. Individually we separate ourselves from the groups labeled "addicts" and act like that could never be us because we could never be capable of being people like that but Alter puts that to the test when asking questions like "Is your phone in reach of you right now" or "do you charge your phone near your bed at night". These questions truly put your thoughts to the test and it made me realize that we can all get addicted at one point in our lives and half of us don't even realize their addictions to their devices. Alter makes his first point about technology being addictive when he brings up the discussion about sleep deprivation occurring more frequently in the U.S. because of blue light, which is exactly the light used in our phones. Alter in this first section provides a lot of factual evidence and stories to back up his knowledge and points. Part two of the book is all about what makes a behavioral addiction, addictive. Adam claims there the most 6 parts that make the addictions addictive which are goals feedback, process, escalation, cliffhangers,and social interaction. The way he describes them and links them into addiction is very powerful and is clear in his wording. The last part, and most addictive in my opinion, is all about the future for our generations and some proposed solutions. Alter really bring out the idea that technology usage if goes up will become dangerously harmful for the future generations to come. However Alter brings hope when he claims there are solutions already being created to try and help people with technology addiction. He does re-clarify at the end that technology is not bad or good but it is up to us what way we go with it.

The book, “Irresistible,” by Adam Alter ties together various behavioral addictions seen in our modern age such as being addicted to phones, social media or even something as simple as online shopping. While this book provides good insight on a problem paving its way into our world, it gives a realization of how much technology is taking over our lives and really taking control. Alter keeps the audience intrigued by providing various examples of addictions including GIs in the army being addicted to heroin, kids being addicted to technology from an early age and how game designers use various sound effects and music to keep the player wanting more. It was interesting to look at things from a game designer's point of view to see what they specifically add in their games to make the average player wanting to play non stop, even when they lose. The author also includes scientific reasoning and past experiments to help explain why we like the things we do and continue to exhibit those behaviors. Using animals like rats and monkeys to help explain why our brain likes certain things allows the reader to look at the topic from a new perspective. As social media continues to grow and draw in our young teens, this book explains how people are so obsessed with receiving likes and the attention their media draws in. I liked how the author used other behavioral addictions like talking to a lady who was addicted to online shopping. It shows you how many examples of addictions there are that we might not have even considered to be addicting. On the same note, I appreciate how he included obvious things we’d think to be addictions like heroin or meth. Although this book gives you good insight on a new behavioral addiction coming to our day and age, it tends to be a little repetitive in information. While it’s good to give different examples of how this addiction can be seen, it starts to get old after four or five of the same concept are given in different ways with very little variation. Despite the repetition of this book, it allows the reader to become more self aware of their own behavioral addictions, asking themselves, “Am I addicted to the internet?” While majority of the time while reading this book, I was interested in what was being said, at times I found myself getting sidetracked and not paying attention to the information the author was portraying and having to go back a reread what I just read. I think majority of the information was good, but some wasn’t necessary and the length of the book honestly could’ve been cut down. With all the time elaborating on all the for the most part similar addictions, I feel like Alter could have spent more time talking about how to prevent the average person from getting pulled into the power of addictions.There was a lot of information but not really a solution. I think this is a good book for all to read just for the fact to become self aware and make sure you’re not spending three plus hours consumed in your phone daily. Majority of people you ask probably don’t even know they could be addicted to their phone or some other behavior. Overall, “Irresistible,” by Adam Alter was a good read and one that really makes you think about the growing power of technology.

This book originally came looking like it was used with bends and damage to the cover. (No telling where that might have happened but it did not seem to be shipping damage but rather the book had been carelessly handled for reading.) I contacted Amazon and was immediately shipped a replacement in perfect condition! That said, I am only on page 31 and feel this is a book worth reading if you find you have little no control to checking and spending too much time on the internet. The media is designed to keep you on the edge of your seat, trigger all sorts of emotional reactions and compulsions, and pacify you at the same time. Even though you may believe you are consuming worthwhile content. I wanted to delve more into this and already this book has been eye opening as to behavioral addictions, compulsions and habits (call it what you will). My eyesight has been problematic as I am aging so I have gotten away from reading books for a long time—too long. But I want to get away from consuming on the internet and get back to spending time reading. I look forward to the rest of this book.

If you text for 3 hours a day, according to a major U.S University study, you'll spend 11 years of your life doing it. Now if you're a salesperson and you're talking to clients and you're making money, that's OK. If you're not a salesperson and you're not talking to clients and you're not making money, what could you have done with 11 years of your life? I take the subway to the downtown Toronto on my way to work and everybody from children to high school to college and university students to even seniors are all texting. I only see 1 to 3 passengers on any given day with a book in their hands. It's rare. I don't own a cell phone and haven't for 20+ years. This book makes a great B-day or Christmas present. Get it for your boss at work...your husband or wife and kids no matter what age they happen to be. Even though cellphones are a recent invention, this book surely ranks in the top 10 written of all time for the entire century. It's a grand slam book and will really make you see what's really there and the consequences of addictive technologies (video games, binge watching TV shows on your cell phone) on society. Television has declined in popularity but has been resurrected on cellphones and is fighting for its life. It's a war between the civil society of reading thinking and writing versus the commercial barbarism of sitting there like a log and absorbing images and stories about people we've never met from places we've never been. It threatens to turn ordinary well intention citizens into brain dead zombies. The solution is to get primary schools to mandate this for reading for all students and then have them write either a paragraph response or an essay about addictive technologies. We don't have to ban cellphones and video games etc..but we surely have to know something about them. Mr Adam Alter 's "Irresistible The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked" is a super amazing read, awesomely wicked in sarcasm and at the same time, serious in intent, very well researched, carefully thought out and brilliantly put together.

This book contains excellent cases that show how the human mind works when it does not have a goal for life, how so much of our time, attention, and money are wasted on vanities that could easily be avoided, and how, without a sense of deep purpose, we become addicted to the external triggers.

Libro perfecto para darte cuenta de todas las trampas que hay con las plataformas y dispositivos que utilizamos a diario. Buena lectura.

The book's content is really interested. However, it's a shame that action-oriented recommandations are not given. Hence I recommend to avoid it if you are looking for practical advice.

Perfect