Irresistible: The Rise Of Addictive Technology And The Business Of Keeping Us Hooked

ALSO BY ADAM ALTER Drunk Tank Pink PENGUIN PRESS An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC 375 Hudson Street New York, New York 10014 penguin.com Copyright © 2017 by Adam Alter Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Alter, Adam L., 1980- author. Title: Irresistible : the rise of addictive technology and the business of keeping us hooked / Adam Alter. Description: New York : Penguin Press, 2017. Identifiers: LCCN 2016043481 (print) | LCCN 2016059209 (ebook) | ISBN 9781594206641 (hardback) | ISBN 9780698402638 (ebook) | ISBN 9780735223868 (international export) Subjects: LCSH: Digital media—Social aspects. | Digital media—Psychological aspects. | Psychology, Applied. | BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies. | PSYCHOLOGY / Psychopathology / Addiction. | COMPUTERS / Web / Social Networking. Classification: LCC HM851 .A437 2017 (print) | LCC HM851 (ebook) | DDC 302.23/1—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016043481 Graphs and charts by the author. Credits for images Here: www.redditblog.com/2015/04/the-button.html; here: Monica Wadhwa and JeeHye Christine Kim, Psychological Science (Volume 26, Issue 6). Page DS5. 06/01/2015. Reprinted by Permission of SAGE Publications, Inc.; here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_or_Not; here and here: Courtesy of Ben Grosser, bengrosser.com/projects/facebook-demetricator/. Version_2 For Sara and Sam CONTENTS Also by Adam Alter Title Page Copyright Dedication Prologue: Never Get High on Your Own Supply PART 1 WHAT IS BEHAVIORAL ADDICTION AND WHERE DID IT COME FROM? 1. The Rise of Behavioral Addiction 2. The Addict in All of Us 3. The Biology of Behavioral Addiction PART 2 THE INGREDIENTS OF BEHAVIORAL ADDICTION (OR, HOW TO ENGINEER AN ADDICTIVE EXPERIENCE) 4. Goals 5. Feedback 6. Progress 7. Escalation 8. Cliffhangers 9. Social Interaction PART 3 THE FUTURE OF BEHAVIORAL ADDICTION (AND SOME SOLUTIONS) 10. Nipping Addictions at Birth 11. Habits and Architecture 12. Gamification Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Index Prologue: Never Get High on Your Own Supply A t an Apple event in January 2010, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad: What this device does is extraordinary . . . It offers the best way to browse the web; way better than a laptop and way better than a smartphone . . . It’s an incredible experience . . . It’s phenomenal for mail; it’s a dream to type on. For ninety minutes, Jobs explained why the iPad was the best way to look at photos, listen to music, take classes on iTunes U, browse Facebook, play games, and navigate thousands of apps. He believed everyone should own an iPad. But he refused to let his kids use the device. I — n late 2010, Jobs told New York Times journalist Nick Bilton that his children had never used the iPad. “We limit how much technology our kids use in the home.” Bilton discovered that other tech giants imposed similar restrictions. Chris Anderson, the former editor of Wired, enforced strict time limits on every device in his home, “because we have seen the dangers of technology firsthand.” His five children were never allowed to use screens in their bedrooms. Evan Williams, a founder of Blogger, Twitter, and Medium, bought hundreds of books for his two young sons, but refused to give them an iPad. And