Go check out this TED video and if you’re not interested in the beginning bit, skip over to about 20 minutes in. I find it fascinating, the way he’s describing how our lives are going to resemble a game more and more. And it’s true! I mean, it’s already so prevalent – think of all the things you’re signed up for to earn points. Credit cards, store member cards, search engines, and really just about any service these days are using points to entice you to use them more. I mean, I search with Swagbucks.com because I want to earn Swagbucks. I use only one credit card (my Chase Sapphire) because I like racking up points on it. My mom obsesses over getting frequent flyer miles every time we travel. I never forget to enter my Ralph’s customer card number when I buy food there (not only to get the discounts, but also to collect the rewards).
I think it’s pretty brilliant. When you make life into one massive game full of a series of mini-games, people have greater motivation to get things done. Even better is when things are transparent and these accounts are linked to your social media account, so your friends can see how you’re doing. People like to win, so seeing someone else did better than them encourages them to spend more time and effort to get a higher score. Then with sensors, just about everything you do can be tracked and have consequences. If you don’t have healthy habits, your insurance premium will go up – there’s a strong motivator to just fit in that quick half hour each day!
I think it comes down to accountability. When people are easily able to hide what they do (or don’t do) and lie to themselves about how well they’re taking care of themselves, they’re more likely to continue with those bad habits. But the moment everyone knows if you’ve flossed today, or had too much to drink, or didn’t get enough sleep, you want to do what you can to improve yourself. Plus, having some friendly competition to egg you along doesn’t hurt. If you see on your friend’s profile that they worked out every day for the past month and you haven’t done squat, it makes you reconsider, doesn’t it?
In a way, it’s bad though – if companies and the government can track you so closely, they’re going to make assumptions about you that may not be true. Just because you don’t eat healthy doesn’t mean you can’t appear perfectly healthy in a physical and feel great. There have got to be certain controls put into place protecting people’s privacy so insurance companies can’t rip people off because they don’t have the healthiest habits. After all, the whole point is to protect against the unknown. Trying to make too many predeterminations can lead dangerously close to a sort of eugenics and determinism. But overall, I think turning our lives into games would lead to better results. Let’s see how long it takes to happen!
