Statistics, Superiority & Self-Worth

all media content produced by myself unless otherwise stated

It’s a technological world. We are digital natives. The overhanging presence of the deified internet is not something we grapple with understanding anymore, it’s a ubiquitous, organic component of what it now means to be human.

A natural side effect of this, however, is that people are placing more of themselves in the web. We situate a piece of our own consciousness within the digital realm. With the advent of Web 2.0 online services expanded in order to accommodate ease of movement and place priority on a two-way user interaction (Murugesan 2007, p.34), encompassing the rudimentary early internet’s evolution into a fully flourished media ecosystem. In simpler vocabulary this speaks of websites with the freedom to submit our own participatory content at will. However this deepened user experience means an increased blurring between the real and digital borders. It creates a more potent brand of digital citizenship where humans are legitimately stepping into the wired world as if its communities constituted a tangible nation. The internet is no longer as centred on anonymous usernames as it used to be, instead focused on building a public, recognisable presence –  a digital humanity, if you will.

Step into the nExt world.

Skull Collecting, a Rural Kid’s Game

All media content produced by myself

Perhaps as a more fringe reflection of the gamification topic, I’d like to very briefly recount the experience of introducing game elements into the act of collecting animal skulls in my rural youth, and the way these systems influenced motivation and participation.

The top shelf of my skull cabinet featuring my favourites.

Flash back to year 10 of my highschool life. I and a friend I’ll refer to as Jayden for the sake of anonymity were both incredibly outdoorsy guys. In that time it was as if we existed for the sole purpose of adventure. Every weekend we’d be out exploring the bushland around us for hours on end, even during study periods or lunch breaks on many a school day as well. One day after stumbling upon a fox carcass I had the idea of severing the head and coming back to collect the skull later. This marked the beginning of an obsession that would consume our lives for the next few years.

Gamifying My Creative Cycle

All media content produced by myself

As any self-deprecating creative would tell you, a true creator is marked by having more stagnated drafts than finished products. And while this little piece of ‘insight’ comes in the form of an inside joke, there is an unfortunate amount of truth to it. After neglecting it for almost an entire year it was eventually made clear that my time-worn “media projects” notebook had just about reached the end of its useful lifespan. This was back in 2017, when I had just begun hearing the idea of “gamification” ring out in my university classes.

My old partner. Rest in Peace 2014-2018