Veronica Roth argues that “if there’s no conflict, there are no stories worth telling – or reading.” Not only do I agree with her claim, but I would extend this argument to any experience. Games, hobbies, and even chores performed … Read more
Category: media psychology
Can immersive media be more engaging than traditional media?
This post summarizes a study I did at Vertebrae, Inc. last year: Interactivity and Realism as Determinants for Engagement: A Comparison Between Immersive and Traditional Media Effects.
Most successful advertising relies on a storytelling format and persuading via modeling, consumers … Read more
So you want to upload your “consciousness” to the cloud?
The year is 2045, and you just watched a marathon of Black Mirror. Feeling that the end is near but that you still have much to accomplish, you decide to upload your consciousness to the cloud, so that a virtual … Read more
A Physiological Model of Boredom and its Relationship with Depression: A research Proposal
Abstract
Based on empirical evidence that suggests that failing to recognize a stimulus as emotionally relevant results in hypoactivity of the orexinergic cells in the hypothalamus, this article proposes a physiological model of boredom that makes depression a consequence of … Read more
My definition of Love
Berscheid (2010) argues that love is difficult to define because of all the instances of love that exist: romantic love, fraternal love, friendship, which vary in much more than a degree of liking. Love is easy to recognize, nevertheless, so … Read more
How to deal with your racist uncle
I see people constantly shaming other peoples’ identities on social media about racial issues (i.e. if you voted for Trump you’re racist) and I think: that ain’t going to help. So I wrote this, an explanation of why shaming doesn’t … Read more
The War on Love
I got this crazy idea about how to include men in the fight for women’s reproductive rights, and so I wrote a paper about it, below.
On October 6, 2017, the Trump administration rolled back the mandatory provision of the … Read more
Turn it into a game. Applying Principles of Gamification to Create Better Stories
Storytellers want their stories to be addictive so that the readers keep turning pages and viewers keep asking for more. How does one achieve that? What does engagement entail? My proposal here is to turn stories into a game for … Read more
How to increase engagement using the secrets of successful vloggers
Have you heard about Bethany Mota? Bethany is part of a generation of successful video bloggers (or vloggers) who have made a successful career by, apparently, just being themselves and playing silly in front of a webcam.
Bethany was … Read more
How to avoid a social media catastrophe like the one from United
Oy, oy, oy. You already know what happened with United. If you don’t, here’s a mighty complete recount of how social media made United the biggest news on the internet.
Now, we’re not here to pass judgment or to … Read more