Are we all just Boy Scouts looking for a badge?

Cody is the Social Media Manager at Piehead

We’ve been talking a lot about gamification lately. You can’t blame us, it’s going to be big this year. With that said, I wanted to share an interesting analogy that takes us right back to our childhood and an obsession we are seeing today.

Not to assume anything, but I’m sure many of you reading this right now participated in either the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts of America. While for many of us it wasn’t by choice (thanks, Mom and Dad), what it did instill in use at a very young age is the sense that you should be rewarded for completing a task or choir. Not only should you be rewarded, but you should receive a visually appealing and large badge. So that you can show the whole world what you did and say “Look at me!” Sound familiar?

From the age of 8, we have been taught to complete everyday tasks in an effort to proudly walk around with a badge on our arms. Take this concept online and we have exactly what we are seeing today around gamification with that same generation now grown up. However, instead of badges on our arms, we are seeing them for our digital personalities, which may include Foursquare badges and rewards, Zynga points and even the LinkedIn progress bar.

Some wonder why gamification is starting to catch on and I say what took it so long. The very nature of the concept has been ingrained in us since the beginning. So throw out that old Boy Scout uniform you’ve been keeping in your closet for 10 or 20 years and make room for the new badges – online.

So, are we all just boy scouts looking for a badge?

(Big thanks to Cornel at 3-prime.com for the title)