What is Gamification and How Does it Affect Us? Why You're ACTUALLY Addicted to Your Phone

Applying aspects of typical game-play (could be card games, video games, or physical games like sports) to other activities or areas of day-to-day life is what's known as Gamification.

A great example of gamification is the language learning app Duolingo! The points and levels earned in the app are how gamification keeps you engaged in your learning material. Gamification is all around us and I bet you'd be able to find an example of it in your own life, if you looked for it. It may be your rewards you earn from frequent purchases at a company like Old Navy, Ulta, Starbucks, or another. Or perhaps you've noticed a pop-up on a social media app telling you that you've just reached an achievement for how many followers you have or interactions you've made. Even checking the amount of likes or comments on a post you've made is a result of gamification. It's often things that we don't even notice, but one thing is for sure, our electronics, especially our cellphones, are like a portal into the engrossing world of gamification.

Because of the rising in the past couple decades of the internet and technology becoming part of our daily lives, the prevalence of gamification has increased significantly. The Director of HCI, Pietro Michelucci, was invited to be a keynote speaker at GSGS 23' and talk about the role of gamification in the emerging economy (also in relation to HCI's own projects!). Is there such thing as too much gamification? How much is it affecting us? And where do we go from here?

Take a look if you're interested! :)