Online games can help to encourage sustainable behaviour by appealing to people's desire for competition.
It's not news that social media helps us project an enhanced version of ourselves, enables us to win approval from friends and strangers, and in our atomised world, feel part of a wider community.
Increasingly, it's also helping us fulfill another basic human desire: to win. Online games with points and prizes are where it's at – not just for business but for political campaigns, charity giving, tackling obesity, quitting smoking.
Many of those concerned with climate change and the challenge of how to motivate people to adopt energy-saving behaviours are already seeing the potential for appealing to our selfish selves through online competition. .........
Enabling information-sharing among peers is as important as the competitive element says founder of Student Switch Off, Neil Jennings. "Stimulating peer-to-peer communication of messages via social media gets the messages out much further and faster."
Full article here : http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/sustainable-behaviour-change-online-social-media?CMP=
Via Maria Cristina Terenzio