Gamification in Social Media – GRIN

Summary or introduction

The publication deals with the combination of social media and online games. More and more operators of social media platforms are integrating game-like elements into their apps. There is currently a clear trend towards gamification in social media. In recent years, social media applications have become more and more important for society as a whole and have arrived in almost all age groups and social classes worldwide.

The fear of loneliness and the curiosity of always wanting to know what other people are doing right now are the keys to the success of social media platforms. In 2019, over 2.77 billion people worldwide used social networks. It is predicted to have over 3 billion users by 2021. Young people make up the largest proportion of users of social media platforms. Social media and online games seem to be particularly appealing to them. How attractive does a combination of these two elements have to be?

More and more often one reads about the relevance of gamification in social media for companies and what effects this new form of marketing and customer loyalty has for large corporations and the social media apps themselves. But what impact does this have on users and especially on adolescents in our society?

Since this side of the topic has hardly been paid attention to so far, the bachelor thesis takes up it and answers the following research question: which technologies do providers of social media platforms (Instagram, Tinder and Snapchat) use to influence the usage behavior of adolescents and which media-pedagogical ones Can consequences be derived from the dangers?