aaronp.meThe Gamification of Tooth-brushing.
Well it's finally happened, the gamification of tooth-brushing. Starting next month, you could trade in $50 of your hard-earned cash for your very own Beam Brush, a toothbrush that uploads your brushing stats to your smartphone and gives you rewards for reaching your tooth-brushing goals.
I recall that tooth-brushing was held up by an early gamification commentator as something that could massively benefit from gamification principles. At the time it seemed a bit far-fetched and needless, but here it is. If I'm honest, it does look kind of neat, but I'm still not comfortable with gamification in general. I've previously outlined how gamification may unfairly discriminate against females, but this push into our everyday lives seems to encourage reward seeking behavior at a more pervasive level. And I can't help but wonder if this comes at the expense of motivation to do tasks where the payoffs are less apparent.
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2012
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