Written
by Miko and Sini
CNN
reported on July 16th, 2016 that two men had fallen off a cliff when
playing Pokemon Go. Men sustained injuries and had to be rescued from the
bottom of the cliff. While they had tried to catch the Pokemons from virtual
world they had ignored the signs stating warnings like ”Do Not Cross” and ”No
Trespassing”. What could have made these two men so motivated to proceed and
totally ignore the dangers their surroundings had and eventually fell off a
cliff?
Based
on this news story above we could state that humans can be motivated with
technology, even to the extent of risking their life. Of course, Pokemon Go is
not the only technology that can motivate people to do different things and
many solutions like fitness applications can inspire people to exercise and
improve their health. As the technology is used in different forms to motivate
and engage people already, instead of asking “Can humans be motivated with
technology?” we could ask how it is done and how we can connect psychological
theories to the phenomena.
There are two main motivation types; intrinsic
and extrinsic motivation. The former is the source of energy when people find
the activity at hand, in this case playing Pokemon Go, satisfying on its own.
Extrinsic motivation would come into play if people would aim to fulfil
external demands and wishes. When the motivation is coming from the person
themselves, they are often more engaged. A side effect of this could be losing
the awareness of real world.
A theory on motivation of learning names seven
main factors that can increase intrinsic motivation in people; challenge,
curiosity, control, fantasy, competition, cooperation and recognition. Fantasy
is often in a big factor in games, Pokemon Go might cause the person to feel
like a real Pokemon trainer wanting to catch everything that they can and take
part in battles just like in the older games and television series. Gaining
control of gyms, hitting a high level, catching all the Pokemon available are
all goals that the player might set for themselves. These goals can be seen as
competition or challenge, which help keep the game interesting and motivating
to play. Pokemon Go players can also gain extra intrinsic motivation when their
achievements in a game is recognized by other players or their friends.
It could be said that motivation caused by
technology is more significant when certain technology causes motivation in many
ways (for example by challenge, control fantasy and recognition) and uses
different motivational techniques like playful elements, measurements, social
elements and professional support. Pokemon Go surely uses playful elements,
measurements (Pokemon statistics) and social elements for engaging and
motivating the user. Also, for example different fitness applications can use all
the earlier mentioned motivational techniques in a various way.
In
conclusion, it can be stated that technology can be used to motivate, but the
level of motivation technology causes depends on the different factors of
motivation it has and how motivation techniques are used. Most motivating
experience can be achieved when technology is satisfying many different
motivational needs, whether they are intrinsic or extrinsic needs.
REFERENCES
Aino
Ahtinen - Lecture 6 (1.10.2018) from the course: Psychology of Pervasive
Computing. Tampere University of Technology.
CNN
(2016). Men fall from cliff playing Pokémon Go. CNN. Available at: <https://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/15/health/pokemon-go-players-fall-down-cliff/index.html>.
Pictures taken from:
Thank´s for the post. With Pokemon Go, you made a very good example how technology can motivate people. One more interesting thought is, that this is not just restricted to a specific area or small group of people. I lived in Berlin, when the Pokemon Go boom started. It was highly noticeable, that people go outside to play this game. Sometimes they walked with their friend and dog, sometimes alone. Sometimes they walked together and not even talked, but just watched the screen of their phone. On the other hand there have been meetings with other people just to catch a special pokemon or capture a gym as a team. Sometimes people joined who not even played the game, but enjoyed the situation to be outside. For me, this is a nice example, who different the types of motivation are. In my oppinion the motivation was at highest, the more different intrinsic or extrinsic sources of motivation (reaching goals in game, compare with others, catching pokemons, be outside, meet people...) a person had.
ReplyDeleteRobert Fuhrmann
I didn’t actually get motivated from Pokemon Go. My friends played it actively and I was a bit disappointed that my friends were more interested in playing the game than interacting socially. They were often distracted by the game when we were hanging out. But I can see the motivation the game created. My friends for example went outside a lot more when they played it than they would have without it. I think that technology can create fun ways to motivate people. I use Fitbit and it motivates me to move when I get accomplishments and see my progress.
ReplyDelete“What could have made these two men so motivated to proceed and totally ignore the dangers their surroundings had and eventually fell off a cliff?” is a cleverly worded question. People text and drive all the time even though it can create fatal circumstances. Because we are incapable of dividing our attention to track multiple happenings simultaneously. So motivation might not be the right word to use here I feel.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Pokemon Go is an interesting case study. The seven factors that contribute to motivation in learning are exactly what good games utilize for repeat user interaction. Gamification of anything makes it fun and attracts users. Pokemon Go, I believe, was further helped by the nostalgia attached with it which played a huge role in the frenzy that the game generated.
Another example is the application Zombies, Run! In which the user is trying to survive a zombie apocalypse by running in real life. The app became the highest-grossing Health & Fitness app on Apple's App Store within two weeks of its initial release.
In short, thank you for the blogpost. It is a good read. Perhaps there are lessons to be learned from Pokemon Go for designing applications that can motivate users.
Hamza Javedan
Great article! I think Pokemon go is a great example on how people are motivated with technology - but are they too motivated? The first example was interesting, it caught my full attention. Is it too motivating if people do not notice the warning sign?
ReplyDeleteRiina P
Interesting, my thought about the subject would be something I kinda feel has happens to me sometimes. The current world is filled with lots of information, if you get used to using your phone in the bus for example you learn to ignore what happens around you. This can results in you losing track of time and place only awakening later to where you are. Missed quitea few busses that way.
ReplyDeleteAnyway I would propose that the general mayhem and cacophony that surrounds our everyday life when travelling anywhere with lots of people has our brains learn to pay less and less attention to what is happening, slowly sharpening our focus on the subject of our attention.
I would suggest that has happened to these two people, with their focus on their game, their brain essentially on autopilot to manuever around obstacles and people that come in their way they blindly walked straight past all warning signs without registering any of them at all.
Just my two cents
Miikael
I think this topic is very interesting and iv had experience with. I believe that a lot of motivation that comes from technology falls into gamification, just like Pokemon go. I use a variety of apps that motivate me , such as Pokemon go for walking or forest to stay off my phone. I think technology has a positive impact on our motivation but I believe it depends on the users how motivated they can be.
ReplyDeleteMatthew Heath
I guess motivations and addictions are really close to each other. I guess now days everybody wants to play some games, doesn't matter what the game are if its popular and everybody playing u have to play as well. U just want to be better than your friends. But for sure apps can motivate you, like all the apps that are making you move or you need to have a target to reach each day. All the sport trackers, I fall into that category as well, I just had to make the daily limit to beat my friends. Even the Pokemon go is motivating you sometimes its just not made good enough like in this situations. In fact it is really dangerous game as well if you lose the reality and just follow the phone where to go. And you certainly lose the track of time with it.
ReplyDeleteI liked your post and also the example.
ReplyDeleteI really believe that technology can motivate people. There are a lot of examples which show that people are more motivated when using technology. To pick one example is the learning of new languages: Back at school it was like, reading books and sitting at home and learning the vocabularys by heart and you only used it for tests and to get a good grade, but you never really used it. It was very booring because it was always the same and the motivation was a grade - which doesn't helped me a lot. But nowadays with the technology there are applications where you can learn a new language without even recognizing it. It's more like playing and trying to crack some highscore and by the way - as a side effect you learn a new language. It is so much more motivating. So I really have to agree with you - technology helps with motivating.