While preparing to work from home (like half of America) I took some time out to think about gamification, and the ways little internet-based games get people to rethink their identities. When people find that part of their self-worth comes from the rewards the social media gives them just for being "themselves," their identities become gamified. Yes, you can gamify yourself.
This is important. With the right kinds of rewards, spaced at the right timing, people can become at least a little bit addicted to anything. And when those rewards are for being you, you can become addicted to your own identity.
It's not just that you like your identity. You can become addicted to it. Ten years ago, if someone had pointed out that out, it would have seemed like a plot from an Octavia Butler novel. But having lived with the most interactive parts of the internet for a decade now, this fact has become sadly intuitive.
The thing is, this was going on before the internet, too.
As far back as the Gilded Age you could gamify yourself.
So I wrote an article about it. You can read about what extreme wealth can do to the people who have it.
You can also find out a little bit about my dating life.
I also explore a new concept, the dope, which is like an old concept, the util. I find it pretty interesting.