Book SummaryIrresistible, by Adam Alter

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Irresistible

Do you spend too much time on your phone or computer? You’re not alone. According to Adam Alter, it’s common to struggle with excessive technology use—many people even have a behavioral addiction to technology. In Irresistible (2017), Alter explores how the design of smartphones, social media platforms, video games, and other digital technologies exploit psychological vulnerabilities to keep users hooked—and what you can do to regain control.

Alter is a psychologist and marketing professor at New York University. He’s also the author of _[Anatomy of a...

Irresistible Summary Technology Addictions Are on the Rise

Alter argues that as of 2017, over 40% of people displayed symptoms of behavioral addiction to various forms of technology, ranging from common devices like smartphones to more niche technologies like high-tech eyeglasses—and he says that this number is bound to increase. (Shortform note: As we’ll discuss, researchers don’t agree on how to define technology addiction; this makes it tough for experts to reliably measure rates of technology addiction, so it’s hard to tell whether this number has increased as Alter predicted. However, one study suggests that more than half of Americans are addicted to their smartphones.)

In this section, we’ll explain what a behavioral addiction is and explore both the symptoms and effects of technology addiction.

What Is Technology Addiction?

A behavioral addiction is something you can’t stop doing even though it does more harm than good, usually because you pursue it to the exclusion of your needs. Alter says that **if you have a behavioral addiction to technology (we’ll call this a “technology addiction” going forward), you use...

Irresistible Summary What Makes Technology Addictive?

Now that you understand what technology addiction is, we’ll explain why technology can be addictive. Alter focuses on video games and social media, but he emphasizes that mobile devices and wearable technology amplify the addictive potential of technology, since they make it possible to engage in addictive behaviors no matter where you are—at work or school, at home, and even on vacation. He identifies four common strategies technology developers use to capture and keep your time, attention, and money; let’s explore those now.

Technology Can Feel as Fun as Gambling

Alter explains that some technology is designed to exploit the same psychological vulnerabilities as gambling, another behavioral addiction, to keep users engaged and coming back for more. He names four such design features: exciting audiovisual design, early hooks, variable rewards, and deceptive superiority to real life.

Exciting Audiovisual Design

Some gambling machines are designed to blare celebratory music and flash brilliant lights when a player wins. Alter explains that even if you suffer multiple losses in a row before a modest win, your brain is primed to interpret these audiovisual...

Irresistible Summary How to Counter Technology Addiction

Since technology can be so addictive, you might be tempted to avoid it, but for most people this is an impractical solution—countering technology addiction is a matter of learning how to live with it in a healthier way. Alter proposes three such methods; let’s explore each.

Harness Addictive Mechanisms for Good

Recall that Alter says we’re intrinsically vulnerable to addiction. He argues that with this in mind, tech developers can aim to create experiences that make healthy behaviors more habit-forming. This approach, called gamification, involves incorporating aspects of games into mundane activities. For example, you might let your kids earn points and rewards for doing chores. Studies suggest that gamification is effective because humans are prone to laziness—evolutionarily speaking, the less energy we expend to achieve our goals, the better—so an experience has to also be pleasurable to motivate us to engage with it. However, gamification has limitations; for example, if you gamified most aspects of life, you’d have a lower tolerance for boring necessities.

(Shortform note: In _[Actionable...

Shortform Exercise: Manage Your Technology Use

Reflect on your technology use and come up with a strategy to manage it more healthfully and effectively.

Can you identify moments in a typical day when technology interferes with your productivity or well-being? How do those moments affect you?