Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked

An Amazon Best Book of March 2017: In his fascinating new book, associate professor of marketing and best-selling author Adam Alter examines the rise of behavioral addiction in our current times and offers some suggestions for alleviating your own addictive behavior. Here s a question: where is your phone right now? Chances are it s within arm s reach and as Alter writes, a device that travels with you is always a better vehicle for addiction. Convenience weaponizes temptation, and with the ubiquity and convenience of technology these days, you can see why behavioral addiction to video games, Facebook, checking your email on your phone, even your Fitbit, is on the rise. Irresistible is a deep and wide-ranging study of addiction, and there is much food for thought here. Alter seems especially concerned about how children and teens interact with technology, citing that they are the most vulnerable of us all. But as adults we are much more susceptible than most of us imagine we may think we re just interacting with a screen, but it s important to remember that there are dozens of highly-paid people behind that screen whose only job is to make sure that we don t stop. --Chris Schluep, The Amazon Book Review