Book Review: Addictive Consumption: Capitalism, Modernity and Excess

Abstract

Gambling studies, consumer studies, communication studies, game studies and journalism, to name a few can take the model assembled by Reith throughout this book and apply it, with the necessary modifications, to any technology or commodity. For instance, in the discussion of gambling addiction, Reith uses terms like I electronic gaming machines i and I the gaming industry i ([9]: 128) to refer to Big Gambling, before moving on to I social gaming i ([9]: 129), referring to freemium game models, comprising anything from gambling apps to games like I Candy Crush Saga i . While Reith's work draws on commonalities between forms of addiction, it is crucial to highlight videogame addiction's specific context ([9]; [14]). Reith, Gerda Addictive Consumption: Capitalism, Modernity and Excess, London: Routledge, 2018. [Extracted from the article]