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The Game of Life: A case study of video games as social platforms

Introduction Human connection, the feeling of being accepted or even loved. What does human connection look like in our digital day and age? Dating apps like Tinder are obviously a very modern tool of people reaching each other, but...
Free as in ‘labor’, not as in ‘movement’: Google’s Local Guides and Gamifying Digital Maps

Free as in ‘labor’, not as in ‘movement’: Google’s Local Guides and Gamifying Digital Maps

In the past few years, tourism has hit an all-time high across the globe. With decreasing costs of transportation and travel, more and more countries are seeing unprecedented numbers of visitors. By May 2018, Turkey had received 11.8 million tourists,...
Game of Fakes: An Entertaining Approach to Analyzing How Awareness of Fake News Affects Trust in News Media

Game of Fakes: An Entertaining Approach to Analyzing How Awareness of Fake News Affects Trust in News Media

‘Fake news’: to Donald Trump, it’s a well-loved, catch-all phrase for the mainstream news media, but to scholars and politicians, it’s a trend of great concern. Fake news, and dis-, mis-, and mal-information is becoming harder for the average...
When Fiction Becomes Reality: From Black Mirror to China’s Social Credit Score

When Fiction Becomes Reality: From Black Mirror to China’s Social Credit Score

Since 2014, the Chinese government is working on implementing a new behavioral scoring system: the social credit score. Presented as an assessment of the ‘reliability’ of citizens, it combines a whole set of criteria such as consumption habits, records...
The rise of connected cars: telematics, carrots, and ads

The rise of connected cars: telematics, carrots, and ads

The car culture, as we know it, is dying. Not because cars are going hybrid or electric, and lack of noise coming out of exhaust systems makes car lovers depressed, neither because they are “learning” to drive by themselves....
Is Apple our Online-Privacy Vigilante?

Is Apple our Online-Privacy Vigilante?

Abstract: Apple purports that its new Intelligent Tracking Prevention Technology integrated in Safari browser prevents 3rd-party cookies from collecting users’ data, therefore, reducing online ads, and ultimately protecting users’ privacy. This paper challenges this by arguing that ITP’s functionality...
Time to be honest? The consequences of virtual appreciation.

Time to be honest? The consequences of virtual appreciation.

‘See who likes you’ is the slogan of the new iOS application ‘tbh’ that was launched this August. The app was built as a way to give “positive feedback and honest opinions” on your friends”. Sounds good, but what...
The Swipe Society: Tindoption

The Swipe Society: Tindoption

Has it ever occurred to you how much of our precious time can be wasted while struggling to create a family or adopt a child? And we don’t blame you, who does not want that picturesque family idylle. At...
Volunteering at Hand

Volunteering at Hand

A critical alternative to matching the needs of communities Current events in the world, such as poverty, wars, and national disasters, bring forth a rise in volunteering organisations and activities. Therefore, it is surprising that in many countries the...
Training Wheels

Training Wheels

As one of the cultural capitals of Europe, thousands of international students (2,000 at the University of Amsterdam alone), new residents and tourists convene in Amsterdam every year.  Unfortunately, not everyone who comes to Amsterdam has the typical Dutch...
Are We Living in the Brave New World?

Are We Living in the Brave New World?

Recently I have read the book “Brave New World“, written by Aldous Huxley. Although the book was published in 1932, it made me wonder how the ideas of a future society that Aldous Huxley brought forward are now applicable...

Gaming can save the world – A gamer’s perspective (interview)

Could it? I may have exaggerated Jane McGonigal’s thoughts on gaming’s potential possibilities, but her optimism and enthusiasm may well agree with the title. McGonigal talks of gaming’s collaborative potential, that if harnessed correctly, could lead to better and...