Getting Things Done: Gaming and Framing

Abstract

According to Barber (2007), the consumer society fosters the growth of an infantile ethos. This happens because infantilization of the consumer is the best way to create new needs that the market can then answer with new goods and services. Given that neoliberalism encourages individual consumers to remain, at least partially, infantile, what position can boring, difficult, “adult” activities occupy in a neoliberal society? Exertion and hard work are in fundamental opposition to infantilization. In a neoliberal culture, then, “serious” activities – like labor, hard work, and other boring things – must be dressed up as pleasant pastimes. Today, thanks to apps, it is possible to work, practice self-care, or study under the guise of playing a game. Clearly, then, gamification – the transformation of boring tasks into pleasurable activities – is consistent with and symptomatic of the broader infantilization promoted by consumeristic capitalism.

Gamification is a fundamental feature of several health apps. When using these apps, we earn rewards and points (depending on what we do). We thus engage in a pleasurable self-governance driven by our own aspirations and capacities. Gamified self-tracking is, then, the opposite of work and work activities. It increases our productivity without oppressing us – at least at first glance. This (apparent) self-governance is a funny and pleasurable taylorism of everyday life.

Citation

Maturo, A.F. and Moretti, V. (2018), "Getting Things Done: Gaming and Framing", Digital Health and the Gamification of Life: How Apps Can Promote a Positive Medicalization, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 29-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78754-365-220181004