Interesting article in the Guardian about the gamification of work

[Alexandra316]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/nov/20/high-score-low-pay-gamification-lyft-uber-drivers-r...

I thought this was an interesting article in the Guardian this week. It talks about how rating systems, like the one used by Airbnb, gamify making money on the platform and encourage you to pursue better results. It's pretty interesting. I've often wondered how much research went into choosing the notification sound in the Airbnb app: people who design video games and slot machines choose these sounds very deliberately, and they're actually addictive on some level.

I enjoyed reading it, and I hope some other hosts will get something out of it too.

[Sarah977]

I find it a reflection of the childishness that seems to increasingly affect society. Used to be you outgrew the need for gold stars after elementary school.  Then the self-esteem movement took over, and the millenials grew up in that world. Now the language is full of baby words like "selfie", "onesie", "hoodie", "baby bump", and people's self-worth seems to come from how many "likes" and social media "followers" they accumulate.

[Alexandra316]

@Sarah977 Don't even get me started on Instagram... the absolute pinacle of this type of thing.

[Ange2]

@Sarah977  True, but at least in grade school you had to put in the work to get the stars. Now we have short cuts for adults, there is a huge market in buying likes and followers to create a vision of the perfectly sellable self,  character/people are commodified,  you can purchase 'self-esteem'.

[Sarah977]

@Ange2  I happen to like odd, "alternative" movies, and my favorite director is Hal Hartley, who's definitely an acquired taste. He made a movie called "The Girl From Monday" in which humans are "traded" on the stock market, and rated on their sex appeal. The more sexual partners one has had, without it leading to marriage, or a long term relationship, the more "value" that person has and the higher price the shares command.

[Ange2]

Sounds very like conditioning responses a la Pavlov's dogs, but Pavlov never went the extra  step and smacked his dogs or had them smack themselves.