Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 21, 2022 8:05:31 GMT -8
Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked
I'm only 10% into this but this would appear to be a non-trivial book. That is, it's not some zealous writer pontificating on the dangers of social media with the kind of hyperventilation that you might find...on social media. Adam Atler lays down a wider and sober background regarding addiction, including such things as Freud's destructive dalliance with cocaine, the problems with soldiers in Vietnam being addicted to heroin, and other associated information.
Funny thing is, before I found this book I had started and stopped about a dozen non-fiction books. I was looking for something non-fiction to read and the subject matter didn't matter so much. But the writing style of today's authors has become superficial, silly, and self-involved. I checked out a promising book on insects, for example, hoping for a good read. But the forward or introduction is almost always a give-away. This particular author waxed in great swaths of stereotypes telling us that there were more insects than grains on the sands of all the beaches and just overall how great insects were and humans were just a relatively minor player, etc. There's nothing wrong with that, per se. But I skipped forward and the tone of the book was plain: This wasn't about relating interesting information about insects to the reader. It was about inundating the reader with the author's fascination with them. Big difference. It was about the author, not the subject matter. The subject matter was just an excuse for the author to write a vanity book.
So when I write a review, for instance, my purpose is to connect a prospective reader with a book. And what I think about the book personally is of no regard whatsoever apart from hopefully being able to describe what the book is about and if it is any good or not. And it's too early to tell about this one. Frankly, it's doubtful I'll finish it, for the conclusion is contained in the first few pages: social media has become addictive to many people.
I'm sold on that idea because I've seen it. The author talks about one prominent example of addiction (which includes online gaming) with World of Warcraft. I've seen my nephews play that game and others like it. And for the life of me, I couldn't see the interest. It was literally just about a group of online characters going around and swinging swords and beating the crap out of various monsters that you came across. Strategy was non-existent. It was all brute force. But there was plenty of motion and colorful flashing lights.
The sheer mindlessness of these types of games easily makes me a believer that the main draw is addiction. Unlike, say, chess, checkers, cribbage, or even Risk-type games, there is very little strategy or thinking involved. But the plethora of moving things and shiny lights seems a dead give-away to an addictive-like nature.
And the author won me over when he further verified the idea that our world is being run by the mindset of angst-filled teenage girls. He writes:
From afar, we really can't know (nor would we really want to) what it's like to be a teenage girl today. But many of those teenage girls have grown up with social media and since then have become voters or managers in major corporations. "Wokeness" is arguably all about these girls (and the beta-boys produced by emasculating feminism) trying to wall themselves off from uncomfortable feelings.
This is done under the guise of "inclusiveness, anti-racism," etc., but no one should take that at face value, particularly if these studies are true (and I think they are) about the increasing lack of empathy in people due to social media. "Wokeness," safe-spaces, and all that malarkey is about them.
Again, we don't (thankfully) know what it's like to be a teenage girl, but what is known is that "transgenderism" has become a fad-like phenomenon amongst them. I've heard that up to 40% of teenage girls in some schools consider themselves "transgender." We might wonder why. But we could argue that it is an attempt to escape from the hurtful, hypnotic, and addictive world of social media. And that's the "kind" reading of the situation. The unkind (or skeptical) reading would be that the embrace of "transgenderism" is just ammunition in the online social media battle to be "special" and a form of one-upmanship on your competition.
I'll report more interesting factoids or quotes as I make my way further through this. I will stay with it for a while and see if it has more to offer.
I'm only 10% into this but this would appear to be a non-trivial book. That is, it's not some zealous writer pontificating on the dangers of social media with the kind of hyperventilation that you might find...on social media. Adam Atler lays down a wider and sober background regarding addiction, including such things as Freud's destructive dalliance with cocaine, the problems with soldiers in Vietnam being addicted to heroin, and other associated information.
Funny thing is, before I found this book I had started and stopped about a dozen non-fiction books. I was looking for something non-fiction to read and the subject matter didn't matter so much. But the writing style of today's authors has become superficial, silly, and self-involved. I checked out a promising book on insects, for example, hoping for a good read. But the forward or introduction is almost always a give-away. This particular author waxed in great swaths of stereotypes telling us that there were more insects than grains on the sands of all the beaches and just overall how great insects were and humans were just a relatively minor player, etc. There's nothing wrong with that, per se. But I skipped forward and the tone of the book was plain: This wasn't about relating interesting information about insects to the reader. It was about inundating the reader with the author's fascination with them. Big difference. It was about the author, not the subject matter. The subject matter was just an excuse for the author to write a vanity book.
So when I write a review, for instance, my purpose is to connect a prospective reader with a book. And what I think about the book personally is of no regard whatsoever apart from hopefully being able to describe what the book is about and if it is any good or not. And it's too early to tell about this one. Frankly, it's doubtful I'll finish it, for the conclusion is contained in the first few pages: social media has become addictive to many people.
I'm sold on that idea because I've seen it. The author talks about one prominent example of addiction (which includes online gaming) with World of Warcraft. I've seen my nephews play that game and others like it. And for the life of me, I couldn't see the interest. It was literally just about a group of online characters going around and swinging swords and beating the crap out of various monsters that you came across. Strategy was non-existent. It was all brute force. But there was plenty of motion and colorful flashing lights.
The sheer mindlessness of these types of games easily makes me a believer that the main draw is addiction. Unlike, say, chess, checkers, cribbage, or even Risk-type games, there is very little strategy or thinking involved. But the plethora of moving things and shiny lights seems a dead give-away to an addictive-like nature.
And the author won me over when he further verified the idea that our world is being run by the mindset of angst-filled teenage girls. He writes:
One analysis of seventy-two studies found that empathy has declined among college students between 1979 and 2009. They're less likely to take the perspective of other people, and show less concern for others. The problem is bad among boys, but it's worse among girls. According to one study, one in three teenage girls say that people their age are mostly unkind to one another on social network sites. That's true for one in eleven boys aged twelve to thirteen, and on in six boys aged fourteen to seventeen.
From afar, we really can't know (nor would we really want to) what it's like to be a teenage girl today. But many of those teenage girls have grown up with social media and since then have become voters or managers in major corporations. "Wokeness" is arguably all about these girls (and the beta-boys produced by emasculating feminism) trying to wall themselves off from uncomfortable feelings.
This is done under the guise of "inclusiveness, anti-racism," etc., but no one should take that at face value, particularly if these studies are true (and I think they are) about the increasing lack of empathy in people due to social media. "Wokeness," safe-spaces, and all that malarkey is about them.
Again, we don't (thankfully) know what it's like to be a teenage girl, but what is known is that "transgenderism" has become a fad-like phenomenon amongst them. I've heard that up to 40% of teenage girls in some schools consider themselves "transgender." We might wonder why. But we could argue that it is an attempt to escape from the hurtful, hypnotic, and addictive world of social media. And that's the "kind" reading of the situation. The unkind (or skeptical) reading would be that the embrace of "transgenderism" is just ammunition in the online social media battle to be "special" and a form of one-upmanship on your competition.
I'll report more interesting factoids or quotes as I make my way further through this. I will stay with it for a while and see if it has more to offer.