Irresistible cover art

Irresistible

Why We Can't Stop Checking, Scrolling, Clicking and Watching

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Irresistible

By: Adam Alter
Narrated by: Adam Alter
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About this listen

How many times have you checked your phone today? Why are messaging apps, email and social media so hard to resist? How come we always end up watching another episode?

In recent years, media and technology have perfected the lucrative art of gaining and holding our attention. This extraordinary feat has changed the behaviour of billions of people, and especially the young: by current medical standards, we are experiencing an unprecedented global pandemic of addiction. But what exactly is an addiction? And what, if anything, might we do about it?

From cliff-hangers to earworms, from religion to pornography, and from the awesome allure of the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood app to the unexpected benefits of the 'butt-brush effect', Irresistible blends fascinating stories with ingenious science to explain how and why we all got hooked. Revealing the surprising causes and sometimes bizarre nature of addiction, this book will equip you with the tools and understanding you need to navigate our irresistible new world.

©2017 Adam Alter (P)2017 Random House Audio Compulsive Disorders Mental Health Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Sciences Health

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Critic reviews

"Truly addictive." (Malcolm Gladwell)
"Brilliant." (Susan Cain)
"Essential." (Charles Duhigg)
All stars
Most relevant  
Really makes you think about those leisure activities that you thought benign, innocuous and harmless. In many cases they are except when they become irresistibly addictive.

Really makes you think

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I would highly recommend this audio book. I enjoyed Alter’s delivery and investment into his work. It is a strong mix of research, real world examples and personal accounts. I was struck by Alter’s disclosure of his own tendencies to become addicted to tech.

As well as providing a commentary on how addiction is built into social media and gaming, and the social implications of that, he provides a solid introduction to behavioural addiction in general - both its mechanisms and also how the understanding of it evolved over time.

Extremely eye opening

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Great listen and really rings true in places. Very insightful and terrifying in places when you spot your own behaviour.

Very Insightful (and terrifying)

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very interesting and thought provoking but took me a while to finish. so jam packed with info and research and facts is a lot to take in in one go. overall would recommend

very interesting topic

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I liked the amount of details on how and why I was addicted to gaming, SM and other things.

Thanks Adam

A great book to understand why you are addicted and how to fight it

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Important book for everyone to listen to or read about how addiction can creep up on us in the modern world and how someone is normally profiting from it.

Although the material is not new or original, book is written and read well.

It's not against tech and modern digital life but makes case for us remembering it is just a tool available to us humans

We are all addicted to something - and somebody else gets paid for it

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Excellent book made just better by the fact the author read it. All books should be read by their authors.

Glad the author read the book

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Very engaging. Well written. Good performance in terms of the reading. The examples and the arguments had me paying attention all the way through.

Fascinating listen

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Brilliant book, well written and the information is many many years before it's time.
well done!!
I highly recommend this book .
Voice is very pleasant 🙂

Brilliant book

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once you start understanding how you are being sucked into the world of addiction with your smartphone or computer games you play, you will rethink a lot of things.

highly recommended book!

scary as hell

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