Adam Alter: Tech Addiction or Healthy Obsession?

How do you know if you're addicted to your phone? Or maybe your favorite game, app, text, snapchat, Instagram, Facebook or online shopping?Is it even possible to be truly addicted to these things? You know, like on the level of drugs? Or are we all just being a bit too alarmist?Where is the line between a healthy obsession that adds to your life and an addiction to tech that can own and potentially destroy you?Today's guest, NYU professor, Adam Alter, gives us a massive reality check. He breaks down the different between passions, obsessions and straight-up addictions, splits apart chemical and behavioral addictions and shows how technology is being specifically designed to get and keep us hooked.Alter also offers some powerful tools to better understand when technology is owning us, rather than the other way around, then show how to reclaim the power in the relationship.His new book, Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked, is a powerful look at how we interact with technology and how it is being designed to create relentless behavioral addiction that can become nearly impossible to break.For more on Adam's "back story," be sure to check out our 2013 conversation on how hidden influences control your life.+++ Today's Sponsors +++Get paid online, on-time with Freshbooks! Today's show is supported by FreshBooks, cloud accounting software that makes it insanely easy for freelancers and professionals to get paid online, track expenses and do more of what you love. Get your 1-month free trial, no credit card required, at FreshBooks.com/goodlife (enter The Good Life Project in the “How Did You Hear About Us?” section). Get your greens in on the go! Nutrition is massively important for everything from energy and focus to disease-prevention and pain-reduction. Plants are critically important. Problem is, it's really hard to get enough daily green to make a difference, especially when you're on the road. So, we turn to ORGANIFI, it's an organic superfood green juice powder that you just add to water and get your greens on the go! Super-convenient, tastes great and as a Good Life Project listener, you can try out Organifi Green juice for 20% off - using code "goodlife" at check out at organifi.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.