Gameful disconnection: how digital detox and productivity apps blend play, work, and profit

Abstract

Excessive use of smartphones has prompted the development of digital detox and productivity apps that incorporate gamification affordances to encourage users to regulate their smartphone use. Similarly, certain smartphone games are explicitly designed to enhance productivity. This study analyzes three smartphone apps, Plantie, Hatch, and Habitica, to investigate their gamified affordances and their ontological characteristics as technology that draws on elements from games and productivity tools. The analysis employs the walkthrough method and utilizes theoretical frameworks from disconnection studies, gamification research, and game studies. It focuses on affordances and discusses the dilemmas inherent in technologies that enhances both productivity and playfulness; technologies that simultaneously aim to reduce and encourage smartphone use, combining rewarding and punishing affordances.