![]() However, goals were not always so important. We have school league tables, waiting time targets, in fact almost everything in our public life seems to be underpinned by targets. Goal-setting is embedded in our current performance culture. Marathon times showing clear peaks at 3:00hrs, just under 3:30hrs and under 4:00hrs as runners strive to record a sub-target time. Alter argues that we all have the potential to be addicted – the mechanisms of the human body are prone to it, if stimulated in the wrong way. He offers an engaging story by combining history (including the American Civil War and the Vietnam war) and some interesting research. Alter is convinced that behaviour addiction – carefully defined, is a real problem. There is a long-running controversy amongst medics and mental health professionals as to whether it is possible to be addicted to an activity rather than a substance. He runs through internet and smartphone addiction and provides a short history of different forms of substance addiction. Adam Alter takes us on a journey through gaming (a useful forerunner of the smart phone – when it comes to relevant research) to understand where the notion of behavioural addiction has come from. Even the visible presence of a smart phone in a room seems to undermine our attempts to interact with other human beings. ‘Irresistible’ begins with the challenge – most of us (over 88% of one sample) are spending more than 1hr/day using our phones – many spending as much as a quarter of our waking hours interacting with it. “ The good news is that our relationships with behavioural addiction aren’t fixed”, he sees much we can still do to restore balance. Tristan Harris (founder of the Center for Humane Technology) appears as well, “ the problem isn’t that people lack willpower it’s that there are a thousand people on the other side of the screen whose job is to break down the self-regulation you have.” Alter concludes the prologue with hope. The prologue - “ Never get high on your own supply”, showcases the unwillingness of the Big Tech leaders to expose their children, when young, to their own products. the ingredients of behavioural addiction andģ. ‘Irresistible’ is broken into three sections:Ģ. His academic research focuses on social psychology, judgment and decision-making, with an interest in the effects that subtle cues in the environment can have on human cognition and behaviour. It is a book that I think deserves to be widely read – and happily it isn’t a difficult read.Īdam Alter is a psychologist and writer, currently based at New York University’s Stern School of Business. “Irresistible” is more about diagnosis than self-help. The publishers will have a reason for changing the subtitle to “Why you are addicted to technology and how to set yourself free” – but the contents of the book appear to be identical. First, please don’t worry if the paperback cover and subtitle are different to the illustration.
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