Re: The gamification of nature
I came across The Naturalist's post on how apps can distort the incentive to be in nature.
There is a bit that especially resonated with me:
There is a revealing moment in Listers when a top-ranked birder is asked a simple question: 'If the app didn’t exist, would you still go birdwatching?' He laughs and answers, 'No'.
The Naturalist responds to this by saying:
That answer is unsettling. Because the birds would still be there. They would still sing at dawn. They would still migrate across continents. The question, is whether we would still be paying attention.
The question I guess we have to ask ourselves when we do something is: why do we do what we do?
If the answer has something to do with the meaning you get as an individual, that's probably the right one. But if it has more to do with how others will perceive you, then that's probably not the path to go down.