Discussion Tuesday
Let us fully outsource this one to twitter!
Discuss: Wearables and the quantified self will turn real life into one giant MMORPG.
— Christopher Mims (@mims) September 7, 2014
Given my Garmin watch which syncs to Strava and Runtastic, and my Fitbit pedometer that sits on the other arm – and the fact that I connect these to MyFitnessPal where I log my food via my cellphone, I sort of see where he is coming from. I love my shiny online badges. Furthermore, I believe there is a term for this type of behavioural effect (which acts both as incentive and a form of precommitment depending on its design) – gamification.
I think yes, broadly, and with its emphasis on workshop tinkering, wearable tech is a great sector for the NZ economy to develop (think Footfalls & Heartbeats in Auckland).
A friend was telling me last night about a pharma that has developed a type of drug delivery system (a pill) with a microchip embedded in it that, as it dissolves, sends a message to your phone that you’ve taken your medication that day. It contains less copper and magnesium than a multivitamin.
I look forward to future scandals where the biometric data of famous people are hacked.
Of course some people have no interest in self-improvement or self-monitoring and will not take up the technology.
Definitely an area NZ may contribute in as a comparative advantage, who knows. We have low population density which may lean against that – might being the operative word
I think what you refer to as ‘gamification’ most people call ‘sport’ 😉
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification
I know what it is but the crucial part is that it’s used in contexts that are not usually competitive to make them less of a chore. The things you refer to are all sport-related and already competitive!
Truish – I’m not sure MyFitnessPal is competitive. Also I had no friends on Runtastic and still used that for the badges for 2 months, but that was private information I guess 🙂
LOL, it’s already a game. But instead of competing in the local league tables with the “your clothes” and “your car” badge, you get to compete on a larger league. More people will feel worse ranked as they are no longer in the top ten of their league.
I’ve been playing Ingress, a GPS location ‘capture the flag’ like game, and those rich retired players own the game due to time to play all day, and the budget for the high data prices. It’s all gamification, to what end who knows, but it was/is fun…
Sounds like fun!