OUR CYBER-HEALTH: Gamification

What does gamification mean for our health? How does this apply today? What role does technology have to play? These are just a few of the questions we should be asking ourselves as the companies we work for and our health care systems look to add the “benefit” of game-based incentives and competitive/collaborative elements to our daily lives.

Introducing a 3-Part Series: Gamification & HealthTech – Cyber-Fuel for Beginners

Gamification itself refers simply to the notion that game elements are added to real-life scenarios to derive added “benefit;” such as expanded engagement. Investopedia continues the definition stating that it specifically takes advantage of the tendencies of human beings toward: “competition, achievement, collaboration, and charity.”

While this much-touted movement is just beginning to impact our workplaces and health care plans, we should take a pause and reflect a critical eye on the possibilities that come with it. While this movement may seem simple and harmless, can we really turn a blind eye to such things?  Gamification needs to be engaged and discussed critically as it continues to become an increasingly manipulative element in our world with positive and negative potential consequences. We need to be informed and critical users if we are to be free to define ourselves.

In this three-part Cyber-Health series, we will be Cyberizing this content as follows:

Chapter 1: In Fiction (10.06.20)

How has gamification been explored in Cyberpunk? Who are the protagonists in fiction and how do they react to a gamified world? How is technology employed in health gamification in these made-up worlds? And finally, what lessons can we draw to better inform ourselves from these worlds?

Chapter 2: Gamification Today (10.13.20)

Why Gamification matters to us today as it just begins entry into our lives? First in reality tv, then health, next banking?

Chapter 3: Our Role in a Gamified HealthTech World (10.20.20)

What does a gamified Health world look like today? How can we inform ourselves to be good critical users? What are some simple tips we can use to make sure the HealthTech and Gamification methods employed work for us in a way that we decide? We are the users, only we can stand up for ourselves.

Make sure to come back in October to join us for this exciting new series. For more Cyber-Fuel on Health, please check out our dedication section on the subject.