"As if to prove his point, Adam Alter has written a truly addictive book about the rise of addiction. After all, who among us hasn't struggled to ignore the ding of a new email, the next episode in a TV series, or the desire to play a game just one more time? He lays out the options we have to address this problem before it truly consumes us. But more than that, Alter heads the problem off at the pass, letting us know what we can do to step away from the screen. He takes us inside the human brain at the very moment we score points on a smartphone game, or see that someone has liked a photo we’ve posted on Instagram. Tracing addiction through history, Alter shows that we’re only just beginning to understand the epidemic of behavioral addiction gripping society. They know how to push our buttons, and how to coax us into using their products for hours, days, and weeks on end. Technology companies and marketers have teams of engineers and researchers devoted to keeping us engaged. These inventions have profound upsides, but their appeal isn’t an accident. People have been addicted to substances for thousands of years, but for the past two decades, we’ve also been hooked on technologies, like Instagram, Netflix, Facebook, Fitbit, Twitter, and email-platforms we’ve adopted because we assume they’ll make our lives better.
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