Chapter 3 Further Reading: What Is Algorithmic Addiction?

Books

1. Alter, Adam. Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked. (2017). Penguin Press. The most accessible book-length treatment of behavioral addiction specifically in the context of technology design. Alter, a professor at NYU Stern, documents the science of behavioral addiction, explains how technology companies deliberately exploit addictive mechanisms, and provides case studies of specific products and their effects. An essential companion to Chapter 3, written for a general audience without sacrificing analytical rigor.

2. Harris, Tristan and Raskin, Aza, et al. Center for Humane Technology: Design Ethics Resources. (Various). humanetech.com. The Center for Humane Technology, co-founded by former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris, produces extensive public resources on the ethical implications of persuasive technology design. Harris's TED talk "How a Handful of Tech Companies Control Billions of Minds Every Day" (2017) is a foundational document in the public discourse about platform design and attention. The Center's "Ledger of Harms" documents the research on social media's negative effects.

3. Twenge, Jean M. iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy — and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood. (2017). Atria Books. Twenge's analysis of generational data on adolescent mental health, social behavior, and wellbeing documents significant changes that correlate temporally with the rise of social media. Contentious among researchers — some dispute Twenge's causal claims — but important for the conversation about social media and teen mental health that the Haugen documents subsequently advanced. The debate about Twenge's claims is itself instructive about how we evaluate causal claims in this area.

4. Haidt, Jonathan and Rausch, Zach. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. (2024). Penguin Press. Haidt and Rausch's synthesis of evidence on social media's effects on teen mental health, with particular focus on the mechanisms by which platform design amplifies normal adolescent developmental challenges. The book makes specific causal claims and policy recommendations. Note: some of these claims are contested by other researchers; reading Haidt alongside critics provides the most balanced perspective.

5. Zuboff, Shoshana. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. (2019). PublicAffairs. Essential background reading for understanding the economic layer of the Persuasion Stack. Zuboff's concept of behavioral modification — the use of behavioral data not merely to predict behavior but to actively modify it in commercially advantageous directions — is directly relevant to the chapter's discussion of algorithmic addiction as a designed phenomenon. See especially chapters 8-10 on behavior modification.

6. Montag, Christian and Reuter, Martin (Eds.). Internet Addiction: Neuroscientific Approaches and Therapeutical Interventions. (2017). Springer. A comprehensive academic collection on the neuroscience of internet and gaming addiction, providing the scientific foundation for the neurological claims in Chapter 3. Accessible to readers with some science background; valuable for those who want to engage directly with the neuroimaging and neuropsychological research rather than through summaries.

7. Orben, Amy. The Screens Dilemma: What Do We Know about Children's Use of Digital Technology?. (2020). Nuffield Trust. A concise, balanced synthesis of the research on digital technology and children's wellbeing by one of the leading researchers in the field. Orben is known for methodological rigor and for distinguishing between what the research actually shows and what has been over-claimed. An important corrective for those who want a less alarming but still rigorous account.

Academic Articles and Papers

8. Andreassen, Cecilie Schou. "Online Social Network Site Addiction: A Comprehensive Review." Current Addiction Reports, 2(2), 175-184 (2015). DOI: 10.1007/s40429-015-0056-9. A comprehensive review of the literature on social network site addiction up to 2015, covering prevalence estimates, risk factors, associated mental health conditions, and measurement instruments. An essential starting point for engaging with the academic literature on social media addiction. Andreassen also developed the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale, one of the most widely used instruments in the field.

9. Kuss, Daria J. and Griffiths, Mark D. "Social Networking Sites and Addiction: Ten Lessons Learned." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(3), 311 (2017). DOI: 10.3390/ijerph14030311. A synthesis of ten years of research on social networking site addiction by two of the leading researchers in the field. The "ten lessons" format makes the article useful both as a research summary and as a framework for understanding the key debates and findings. Accessible and comprehensive.

10. Billieux, Joël, et al. "Problematic Smartphone Use and Smartphone Dependency: The Role of Impulsivity." Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(5), 282-286 (2015). DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2014.0305. Research on the relationship between impulsivity, smartphone use, and problematic use patterns. Relevant to the chapter's discussion of individual factors that predict whether social media use becomes problematic, and to the broader question of what role individual differences play in the Persuasion Stack analysis.

11. Orben, Amy and Przybylski, Andrew K. "The Association Between Adolescent Well-Being and Digital Technology Use." Nature Human Behaviour, 3(2), 173-182 (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-018-0506-1. One of the most methodologically rigorous papers on the relationship between digital technology use and adolescent wellbeing. Orben and Przybylski's analysis of large datasets found that the association between technology use and wellbeing is statistically significant but small in magnitude — smaller than many commonly cited figures suggest. Essential reading for calibrating claims about the strength of the social media-mental health relationship.

12. Valkenburg, Patti M., et al. "Social Media Use and Adolescents' Self-Esteem: Heading for a Person-Specific Media Effects Paradigm." Journal of Communication, 71(1), 56-78 (2021). DOI: 10.1093/joc/jqaa039. An important paper arguing that social media's effects on adolescent self-esteem are highly variable across individuals — some adolescents benefit, some are harmed, and many are unaffected. This finding supports the chapter's emphasis on the spectrum of effects and the importance of individual differences, while complicating simple narrative accounts of social media as uniformly harmful.

13. Haidt, Jonathan and Allen, Nicholas. "Scrutinizing the Effects of Digital Technology on Mental Health." Nature, 578, 226-227 (2020). DOI: 10.1038/d41586-020-00296-x. A commentary by Haidt and Allen arguing for more rigorous research standards in the social media and mental health field, while also arguing that existing evidence is sufficient to warrant regulatory attention. A useful example of how researchers in this field negotiate between scientific caution and public health urgency.

14. Montag, Christian, et al. "Addictive Features of Social Media/Messenger Platforms and Freemium Games Against the Background of Psychological and Economic Theories." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(14), 2612 (2019). DOI: 10.3390/ijerph16142612. A paper connecting the design features of social media platforms and freemium games to both psychological theories of addiction and economic theories of user retention and monetization. Directly relevant to the chapter's argument about deliberate design and the economic layer of the Persuasion Stack.

15. Billieux, Joël, et al. "Scholars' Open Debate Paper on the World Health Organization ICD-11 Gaming Disorder Proposal." Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 6(3), 267-270 (2017). DOI: 10.1556/2006.5.2016.088. The 36-author critique of the WHO's Gaming Disorder proposal, representing the strongest scholarly objection to formal recognition. Essential for understanding the debate about behavioral addiction and the standards of evidence required for diagnostic recognition. Read alongside the WHO's response for a complete picture of the argument.

Journalism

16. Horwitz, Jeff and Hagey, Keach. "The Facebook Files." Wall Street Journal. September-October 2021. The original series of investigative reports based on the Haugen documents, including the pivotal piece on Instagram and teen mental health ("Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show," September 14, 2021). The primary journalistic account of what the Haugen documents revealed. Essential reading for Case Study 3.2.

17. Harris, Tristan. "How Technology Is Hijacking Your Mind — from a Magician and Google Design Ethicist." Medium, May 18, 2016. Harris's widely circulated essay explaining, from an insider's perspective, the specific design techniques that social media and app companies use to maximize user engagement and the psychological mechanisms they exploit. A landmark document in the public discourse about platform design ethics, accessible to a general audience and directly relevant to the chapter's discussion of deliberate design.

18. Newton, Casey. "Trauma, Privacy, and the Haugen Files." The Verge, October 26, 2021. A nuanced assessment of the Haugen documents and their implications, written shortly after the Senate testimony. Newton's analysis is particularly valuable for its discussion of what the documents do and do not establish, and for the context it provides about how internal research documents should be interpreted.

Online Resources

19. American Psychiatric Association. "Diagnostic Criteria for Substance Use Disorder." DSM-5-TR, 2022. Available at psychiatry.org. The current official diagnostic criteria for Substance Use Disorder and Gambling Disorder, as well as the section on "Conditions for Further Study" that includes discussion of Internet Gaming Disorder. The authoritative reference for the clinical discussion in the chapter.

20. World Health Organization. "ICD-11 Gaming Disorder (6C51)." 2019. Available at icd.who.int. The official ICD-11 classification of Gaming Disorder, including the full diagnostic criteria and clinical guidance notes. Essential primary source for Case Study 3.1. The ICD-11 is freely available online and includes detailed guidance on differential diagnosis and clinical assessment.