Irresistible

“Irresistible traces the rise of addictive behaviors, examining where they begin, who designs them, the psychological tricks that make them so compelling, and how to minimize dangerous behavioral addiction as well as harnessing the same science for beneficial ends.”

This passage furnishes a helpful summary of the entire book’s contents in just a few words. 

“In many respects, substance addictions and behavioral addictions are very similar. They activate the same brain regions, and they’re fueled by some of the same basic human needs: social engagement and social support, mental stimulation, and a sense of effectiveness.” 

Alter spends much of the book comparing substance and behavioral addictions, but ultimately posits, as he does here, that they function similarly in the brain. 

“A couple of years ago, Kevin Holesh, an app developer, decided that he wasn’t spending enough time with his family.” 

The theme of spending more quality time with loved ones (instead of with one’s gadgets) is touched on in the very first sentence of the book. 

“The bottom line: a staggering 41 percent of the population has suffered from at least one behavioral addiction over the past twelve months.” 

This quote defines one of the principle goals of the first chapter: to prove that behavioral addiction is a widespread social problem. 

“‘My mom is almost always on the iPad at dinner,’ a seven-year-old named Colin told Steiner-Adair.” 

Psychologist Catherine Steiner-Adair helps prove one of Alter’s assertions that children primarily learn how to interact with technology through watching their own parents. 

“Normally just 5 percent of all heroin addicts stay clean, but Robins found that only 5 percent of the recovering G.I.s relapsed.” 

One of Alter’s main points in Chapter 2 is to demonstrate that one’s environment plays a significant role in one’s likelihood of becoming addicted to something. This quote points to the fact that Vietnam veterans were significantly less likely to be addicted to heroin once they escaped the environment in which they were first hooked on it. 

“The most striking thing Szalavitz told me was that addiction is a sort of misguided love.” 

Alter dedicates many paragraphs to characterizing addiction in a particular way. Rather than making addicts out to be a distinct category of person, Alter shows that almost anyone can be capable of becoming addicted to something. 

“There was no material difference between these two routes to addiction; they were essentially two versions of the same malfunctioning program.” 

A study of Parkinson’s patients showed that certain repetitive behaviors can signify addiction just as reliably as a dependence on medications, further bolstering Alter’s claim that behavior and substance addictions function similarly in the brain. 

“The jump was so impressive that the word Beamonesque came to signify an otherworldly achievement that dwarfs its predecessors.” 

Alter relies heavily on colorful anecdotes throughout the book to illustrate or validate his claims. This line comes from a particularly colorful story of a man who broke the world record in the long jump by two feet at the 1968 Olympics. 

“Forty-eight days after the prank began, BigGoron pressed the button for the last time. After this push, the countdown timer descended to zero.” 

Chapter 5 illustrates the addictiveness of feedback. In this humorous example, users tended to a button (a form of feedback) for weeks without even knowing what the button did. 

“Historically most gamers have been men, but the gaming world has begun to appeal to women and other underserved groups. In fact, in August 2014, women over the age of eighteen became the largest demographic in gaming.” 

Due to games like Kim Kardashian’s Hollywood, the typical profile of an addicted gamer has changed dramatically. Simultaneously, gaming has become more widely available through mobile devices, while in the past gaming was restricted to consoles. 

“‘People don’t understand why movie stars are often miserable,’ Goldhill said. ‘Imagine getting the girl every night, and never paying for a meal. A game in which you always win, for most people, is boring.’” 

Alter uses this quote to demonstrate that difficulty is an important ingredient in an addictive experience. Without challenge, a task will soon grow boring. 

“One of the amazing things about the chord progression in ‘September’ is that it never lands. It makes this loop that you never want to stop hearing. And that’s why it’s so popular still, to this day.” 

Far from being a phenomenon employed exclusively in television shows, cliffhangers can be found almost everywhere, including some popular songs. 

“Laura Polkus, a former designer at Hipstamatic, remembered, ‘We saw Mark [Zuckerberg]’s blog post, and it was like, ‘Wait, one billion? Like, a billion dollars?’” 

A founder of a rival to Instagram here recalls her surprise at learning just how much money Instagram wound up being worth to a tech CEO. The difference between the value of Instagram and the value of Hipstamatic came down to Instagram’s use of a dedicated social network. 

“[T]here’s nothing wrong with making friends online, as long as you also make friends in the real world.” 

As with much else in Irresistible, the solution to excessive online interaction is moderation, not complete abstinence. 

“Reading emotions is a finely tuned skill that atrophies with disuse and improves with practice, and that’s what the researchers found at the summer camp.” 

After just a few days of interacting with one another without devices, several children scored higher on a test that measured their ability to read emotional cues, a finding that has serious implications for those who interact socially exclusively through devices. 

“There are more than four hundred treatment centers in China, and, according to the country’s definition of Internet addiction, more than twenty-four million teen Internet addicts.” 

While the US government has been slow to respond to the problem of internet addiction, other countries, such as China, have already dedicated ample resources to the issue.

“I’m not here to preach to you or tell you what you ‘should’ do; how would I know, it’s your life and not mine! I believe people know what’s best for them.” 

This is a sample of the kind of language encouraged in motivational interviewing. The language is meant to come across as nonconfrontational while also allowing for the possibility of sincere discussion about change of addictive behavior. 

“Building a new habit is difficult.” 

The time it takes for a person to build a habit varies, but studies show that using encouraging self-talk can speed the rate at which a good habit forms. 

“Just as we tend to befriend strangers who are nearby, we’re also drawn to whatever temptation happens to be within arm’s reach.” 

Perhaps the most essential theme in Chapter 11 is that one should alter the composition of their environment to avoid relapsing into addictive behaviors. 

“Grosser’s Demetricator is relatively subtle. It dulls the feedback cues that make Facebook addictive, rather than preventing you from using Facebook altogether.” 

This tool, called the Demetricator, works by eliminating the numbers associated with the likes, shares, and comments on Facebook’s interface. Alter suggests that without such numbers, the experience of Facebook becomes less addictive. 

“But not all addictive experiences are bad. In theory, the same books that drive addiction can also be harnessed to drive healthier eating, regular exercise, retirement saving, charitable giving, and committed studying.” 

This quote succinctly captures the attitude of the last chapter of the book, which outlines ways that addictive techniques can be harnessed for positive outcomes. 

“Despite the sense that things have changed in the past, we also tend to believe that they’ll stop changing—that we and the lives we lead right now will remain this way forever. This is known as the end of history illusion.” 

Alter uses this point to underscore that we are only at the beginning of the rise of behavioral addiction, and it will likely get much worse.