What is Fun Theory?



Fun theory tells us that novelty makes things interesting and making something fun makes it feel good. When something is both novel and fun, it becomes intrinsically rewarding and we love doing it. What’s more, it can have a lasting effect, because when you do something fun you not only feel good about what you’re doing at the time, but afterwards you want to do it again. Fun can be mildly addictive which makes it powerful stuff.

Fun is so powerful it can turn mundane and apparently ‘boring’ things into attractive options. Just think back to when PokemonGo was released and how it incited all sorts of normally sedentary gamers to get out of their bedrooms and go running around looking for Pokémon. Without any nagging, cajoling, incentives or lectures on the benefits of getting out and exercising. That’s the power of fun. It makes people want to do things.


Making 'Boring' Things Fun, The Piano Stairs Way

It just goes to show that fun can be used for serious purposes. Fun theory has been used to motivate people to do all kinds of ‘boring’ things. Like, using the stairs instead of an escalator. Check out this video of piano stairs and see which side you would choose.


Musical stairs are a great example of fun theory in action. You make exercise more interesting and people will choose exercise. It’s a great lesson to learn when you are in charge of kids. (If you are liking the musical steps then you can try them out for yourself at Vienna’s Haus Der Music.


Meanwhile what could liven up the task of recycling more glass bottles?


You might not think putting litter in a bin could be fun, you’d be wrong. Watch how much interest this bin gets with just a little bit of added imagination. And how much litter gets put in it.


Fun Is A Serious Business

So, fun has a serious purpose and as you can see in the videos, if you set things up right, it can get serious results. It’s catchy too. When something looks like fun, others get interested in joining in too, creating a kind of a virtuous viral spiral of engagement.

How To Make Daily Life More Fun?

Next time you are trying to persuade the kids to leave their bedrooms and come out on that ‘boring’ walk or you’re trying to cajole your partner into that dull sounding adventure of a lifetime, stop before you start persuading. Think of the fun theory and see if you can find the fun in the idea, not just for you but for them. Remember the music stairs and the magical bin and see if you can find a way to re-frame, re-plan or reinvent your idea so it really will be fun for them. You might just find they’re on board without you really trying. After all, who doesn’t want to join in something imaginative and fun?


Do you believe in the power of fun? How do you inject fun into your travels and adventures? Do leave a comment and let us know.


See you all tomorrow.

Buh-bye.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Mental Illnesses Personified

Image
Alright, so this morning I was sent a link this morning to 15 illustrations of mental illnesses represented as houses. It was really cool and thought-provoking, so, thanks to Nyla Grigsby for sending me the link. I'll share it here . Check it out, but not before you read this post (obviously). After looking through those pictures, I was reminded of a series of drawings I found a couple years ago with the same idea (only much more frightening - which I like). If you're not aware, every October, artists from all around the world participate in a drawing challenge called "InkTober" where they make one ink drawing a day for the entire month. In October 2016, an amazing artist Shawn Coss  decided to make his own original prompt for the month. Shawn wanted to focus primarily on personifying mental illnesses and disorders. These illustrations are crazy awesome, scary, realistic . Shawn manages to capture the struggle and turmoil of those who suffer with these illnesses
Read more

Y2K Bug / New Blog

Image
Y2K bug, also called Year 2000 bug or Millennium Bug, a problem in the coding of computerized systems that was projected to create havoc in computers and computer networks around the world at the beginning of the year 2000 (in metric measurements K stands for thousand). After more than a year of international alarm, feverish preparations, and programming corrections, few major failures occurred in the transition from December 31, 1999, to January 1, 2000. Until the 1990s, many computer programs (especially those written in the early days of computers) were designed to abbreviate four-digit years as two digits in order to save memory space. These computers could recognize “98” as “1998” but would be unable to recognize “00” as “2000,” perhaps interpreting it to mean 1900. Many feared that when the clocks struck midnight on January 1, 2000, many affected computers would be using an incorrect date and thus fail to operate properly unless the computers’ software was repaired or r
Read more

GOING AWAY PARTY!

Image
HELLO LOYAL READERS! All 7 or 8 of you if I'm not mistaken. Thank you for continuing to read my blog every day for the last 310 days! Or, if you've just clicked on the links without reading the articles, that's also okay because it still shows up as if you did read it, so thanks for even clicking the links at all. I'm sure they were getting annoying after around day 50. Good thing I went on for another 260! So, I've been thinking about this move for a while now, and I think today is the perfect day to do it. While, yes, this will be the last post on this specific platform, it will NOT be the last you hear of me chucking my random interests into your faces. In fact, I like to think of this as an upgrade. An upgrade that will benefit all of us! Now that I've finally figured out how Patreon works, THAT will be where any blog posts, interesting articles, short stories and general updates on what's going on in my life will be posted. This way I can
Read more