Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked

Children are especially vulnerable to addiction, because they lack the self-control that prevents many adults from developing addictive habits. Regulated societies respond by refusing to sell alcohol and cigarettes to children—but very few societies regulate behavioral addictions. Kids can still play with interactive tech for hours at a time, and t

goals often inspire action because they become fixation points.

The sense of creating something that requires labor and effort and expertise is a major force behind addictive acts that might otherwise lose their sheen over time.

addiction wasn’t a disease. Rather, it was the association between an unfulfilled psychological need and a set of actions that assuaged that need in the short-term, but was ultimately harmful in the long-term.

“When people make decisions, they privilege wanting over liking,” Berridge said. “Wanting is much more robust and big and broad and powerful. Liking is anatomically tiny and fragile—it’s easily disrupted and it occupies only a very small part of the brain. In contrast, it’s not easy to disrupt the activation of an intense want.

Behavioral addiction consists of six ingredients: compelling goals that are just beyond reach; irresistible and unpredictable positive feedback; a sense of incremental progress and improvement; tasks that become slowly more difficult over time; unresolved tensions that demand resolution; and strong social connections.

In contrast to the scary, crazy, and clueless parents are those who are “Approachable, Calm, Informed, and Realistic.” They understand that social media is a part of the real world. Sometimes their children will be upset, but overreaction makes the problem worse. These parents take the time to understand how their kids interact with social networki

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, and it happens in part because it’s much easier to see the real changes between ten years ago and today than it is to imagine h

stopping rules play a huge and sometimes overlooked role in driving addictive and compulsive behaviors.