How Socially Sustainable Is Social Media Gamification? A Look into Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Nowadays, most social media platforms apply some form of game-like elements intended to attract, retain and shape human interaction. It hence becomes vital to investigate gamification with regard to its social sustainability—a concept describing conditions fostering the well-being and development of communities. This chapter critically assesses the impact of gamification used in Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with regard to aspects such as relatedness and reciprocity, status signaling, community responsibility and future focus. Our analysis calls attention to business practices including efforts by social media services to use gamification capabilities to support social sustainability outcomes, but we also raise a critique of instances where gamification seems to override the core social offerings of personal exchange and sharing of meaningful content.