The middle part of Alter’s book is illuminating on the ways that designers engineer behavioural addiction. He examines goal-setting, and why users of Fitbits often exercise to the point of injury; the dangers of inconsistent but rewarding feedback (counting those 'likes'); the importance of a sense of progress (such as counting followers, or advancing through a game) ... Some will find this shrill and alarmist – new technology has always had its catastrophisers ... Connectivity is here to stay, and Alter suggests that parents in conflict with their kids over it would do well to stay approachable, calm, informed and realistic, and remember that technology brings solutions along with problems.
Alter’s sweep is broad: He includes not just the more obvious addictive technologies such as slot machines and video games, but the whole sweep of social media, dating apps, online shopping and other binge-inducing programs. He takes in everything whose business model depends on being irresistible (which today is most things). If he’s right, most of us are nursing at least a few minor 'behavioral addictions' and perhaps a major one as well. By the end of his enjoyable yet alarming book, you may be convinced that Alter is right and want to seriously rethink the behavioral addictions in your life ... Alter directs his sharpest criticism at those who are intentionally designing addictive technologies — that is, much of the high-tech industry.
...[an] unsettling but riveting book ... He convincingly argues that technology is increasingly engineered to be addictive, making all of us, but especially children, vulnerable to its dangers ... Unfortunately, after Alter sells us so convincingly on the idea that our immersive relationship to tech is hindering our human relationships and our overall quality of life, the solutions he offers hardly feel up to the task.
Alter deftly profiles the history of addiction, from ancient drugs to today’s Facebook and Instagram, and writes that the current digital era has created an epidemic of technology addiction, describing the challenges these products can pose ... Those interested in technology, social psychology, behavioral sciences, and social media may find Alter’s book itself to be 'irresistible' and difficult to put down, as the author explains how addictive technology has alarmingly, increasingly rewired the brains of many generations, with long- and short-term impacts on our behaviors.
There is a tinge of first world problems in Irresistible. World of Warcraft support groups; a product Alter writes about called Realism; a spike in girl gaming addicts fuelled by Kim Kardashian’s Hollywood app – it’s difficult to see why these things should elicit much sympathy while one in 10 people worldwide still lack access to clean drinking water. This very western focus on desire and goal orientation is one that eastern thinkers might consider a wrong view of the world and its material attachments, but Alter’s pop-scientific approach still makes for an entertaining break away from one’s phone.
He bolsters such points with sociology and marketing studies, although more focus on the fast-changing technology industry itself would have firmed up his discussion. A clearly written account of a widespread social malady that is sure to gain further attention in coming years.
