Checking points and rewards is easy with a smart phone.
© Thinkstock

An Observation About Life

It was a Saturday like any other.

• I started my day with a walk. I turned on my fitness app to record how far and how fast my journey was. My walk earned me fifteen fitness points.
• I opened my food app to scan my cereal bar code and enter my breakfast food data. Not a bad calorie count to begin the day. The app shared that I had 1900 calories left to spend.
• I loaded my grocery store app with all the exclusive “Just for You” specials and headed to the store. At checkout, my receipt showed that I earned a 15% savings because of my special coupons.
• Plus, through my reward card, my food purchases earned me forty-five gas reward points. Added to the fifty-five points I had already earned, I now qualified for a discount at the gas station.
• At the gas station, I punched in my grocery store reward card number and redeemed the points I had earned, saving twenty cents a gallon.
• As I drove to the mall, I watched my gas consumption on the car dashboard display. I strategically stepped off the gas pedal several times and coasted to try to beat my previous record.

And then, I had an Oh, I see observation about life. My day so far had been full of points, rewards, and earnings. I am living a video game! 

Yes! I earned a reward!
© Janine Boylan

The Name of the Game

Many companies use game-like programs to motivate employees or customers, such as group incentives to lose weight or energy consumption reports that encourage us to compare and compete with friends and neighbors over energy savings.

The concept of using game strategies to engage an audience has been around for a while. Recently this marketing strategy has earned a name: gamification.

Author and entrepreneur Gabe Zichermann clarifies that gamification “is taking the best ideas from games, loyalty programs, and behavioral economics and putting them together and using them to create engagement over the long haul.”  You can see Zichermann speak in greater depth on gamification during this TED talk.

The Facts Behind These Games

Is it OK that our lives are becoming one big video game?

Game designer Jane McGonigal argues that it is. In a Wall Street Journal article, McGonigal says video games give us four things that we need for a happy life:

• satisfying work
• real hope for success
• strong social connections
• the chance to be part of something bigger than ourselves.

Games connect us, even when we’re alone.
© Thinkstock

More and more reports are showing the positive effects of video games.

• Fredric Wolinsky and his Iowa colleagues published a report showing that playing video games improved a group of seniors’ cognitive processing skills over their counterparts who did not play the game.
• Linda Jackson and team discovered that the more middle-school kids played video games, the more creative they were.
• Paul J. C. Adachi and Teena Willoughby’s study shows that video games build “(1) intrinsic motivation, (2) concentration and cognitive effort, and (3) cumulative effort over time to achieve a goal.”

I’m Game

The fact is that gamification works. It makes the mundane more fun. Going to the grocery store, filling my tank with gas, or driving from errand to errand were never high on my list of fun things to do, but making a game of these activities has made them more appealing and, yes, rewarding.

So, my observation about life (with apologies to Shakespeare):

All the world’s a game,

And all the men and women merely players;

We have our points and our reward cards,

And one man in his time has many user names. . .

 Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

What should we do today?
© Thinkstock

Making Choices Count

“What do you want to do today?”

“Dunno. How about you?”

“We could hang around for a while, then get something to eat.”

“That sounds good. But we do that everyday.”

“We could try that virtual drum app on the iPad.”

“Yeah, I like that one. Awesome rhythms.”

“Or the koi pond app. I love those shimmering fish swimming in the turquoise water. It’s relaxing. Even when I’m calm, though, I like to tap that screen and watch those koi scatter.”

“Bring on the iPads!”

This conversation could be among any group of friends. In fact, however, it’s how I imagine Bonnie, Kyle, and Iris start their day at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington D.C.

They’re orangutans. And, like many others in 13 zoos around the world, they are part of the Apps for Apes program.

Orangutan artist at work
© Orangutan Outreach/Engel

Apps for Apes (sponsored by Orangutan Outreach) offers a variety of technology choices for orangutans to enrich their lives. It’s well known that orangutans are intelligent, but who knew they also have a geek streak?

When I first saw stories about this program, I sensed there were some valuable lessons to be learned. The apps provide a daily dose of mental and physical stimulation and that little dash of spice to keep things interesting. Isn’t that a good idea for all of us?

Oh, I see. A little spice can make us happier.

Hmmm. Life is full of interesting choices.
© Thinkstock

Lively Life Adventures

What else can I learn from my orangutan friends? With a 97% overlap in DNA between orangutans and us humans, I imagine that they have trouble, just like us, deciding what to do each day.

If there are free hours, why not have access to some entertainment, some digital stimulation, some new sights and sounds? Why not enrich life with new adventures?

Oh I see. Everyone’s life can be a little happier by making energizing and creative choices—and that includes the lives of our friends in the primate world.

Variety is Vital

Great ape keepers know how important it is to vary the daily lives of orangutans to keep them from getting bored or depressed. The caregivers provide variety in food, toys, and social interactions—all geared toward a happier life.

Now, they can also add technology—and give the animals a choice of interactive books, cameras, and apps that offer even more variety for stimulation and creative challenge.

Orangutan studies his animal friends
© Orangutan Outreach/Center for Great Apes

Freedom of Choice

The Apps for Apes program puts iPads at the fingertips of these intelligent creatures and gives them freedom of choice to select what appeals to them.

The animals are never forced to play with an iPad. They have to show interest. And they do!

They love painting, playing the piano or xylophone, pounding out a percussive riff on the drums, or just watching koi swim. Take a look in the video below.

If video does not display, watch it here.

They also like looking at themselves (not unlike the most vain of us humans). When Mahal, an orangutan in Milwaukee, first saw himself on camera, he raised his hands and clapped. With all due humility, he gave himself a standing ovation.

Orangutans also like seeing other folks in the animal world. Soon, they’ll be skyping each other from one zoo to the next or friending one another to keep in touch. Can Angry Birds’ competitions be far behind?

Oh, I see. Choosing our own activities frees us to be who we really are.

Kindred Spirits

Every time I watch a video of a great ape or see photographs like those posted here, I feel we are kindred spirits.

And, as with any kindred spirit, there is much to be learned—the vitality of variety, the importance of making creative selections, and the need for freedom of choice.  Going ape for apps is just a plot line. This story is really about making good everyday choices for an adventurous, rewarding, and happier life.

Kindred spirits
© Thinkstock

To support Orangutan Outreach, you can donate an old iPad (or send a check). Orangutans are critically endangered in the wild because of rapid deforestation and the expansion of palm oil plantations into their rainforest home. If nothing is done to protect them, they will be extinct in just a few years. 

VIA Smithsonian’s National Zoo.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.