Reading a bunch lately about how we aren't so smart, confirmation bias, political division, and a zonal US, brought to mind a statement from one of my library school professors - We must be most aware of what we are biased towards.
Think about it. How beautiful is that.
As with most professions, there are many changes being proposed and actually just happening in my work world. I'm really needing to think about them.
Gamification.
Typically gamification applies to non-game applications and processes, in order to encourage people to adopt them, or to influence how they are used. Gamification works by making technology more engaging, by encouraging users to engage in desired behaviors, by showing a path to mastery and autonomy, by helping to solve problems and not being a distraction, and by taking advantage of humans' psychological predisposition to engage in gaming. The technique can encourage people to perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping, filling out tax forms, or reading web sites.
Games don't motivate me. Even to do something boring. It's not that I didn't try to play games, they just don't do it for me.
So, actually, the bias towards may be turned around here. As in I am biased toward intrinsic motivation. Getting something done is good enough.
Or maybe the motivation is crossing it off a list. I just don't need a prize. Or a button. So I'm thinking. Is that button just the same thing? The crossing off the list in a different form? An electronic version of writing your name on the castle at the end of summer reading?
Am I comparing this form of games to some old ideas I have of games and not what this is all really about? Is that my bias?
It's not that I don't like technology. Since it's that season, I'm often commended on my ease of use and understanding in appraisals. Maybe they are just surprised because I am, after all, an old person and it just shouldn't be this way. Kidding. Sort of. I however do not learn it in game ways, by trial and error. I find someone who can help or actually am more likely to find a book or, yes, website, with written instructions to follow. It's faster. For me.
I need to be aware and leave my preference behind. Or do I. I have always thought that technology should give us more choices. Choices to do things in ways that work for our type, whatever the tiny differences of that type are. I am many types, after all.
I read a summary a staff member wrote from a tech conference he attended. All the ways he wanted to change the library to a new model. All I could think of was I wouldn't have a library to use when I retired. It wouldn' have anything for me. Maybe that's OK. It can't be everything to everyone. Or so we are being told. How sad this makes me. The thought of not finding myself in an institution that has been so much a part of my life since childhood. That I have given so much of my life.
I am biased toward a certain type of library. I need to be aware of that. And maybe just let it go. In more ways than one.
I need to think this out. There are discussions coming up.
