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Playing green: The magic of infrastructural platforms

Li, Che LU (2025) MKVM13 20251
Media and Communication Studies
Department of Communication and Media
Abstract
In today’s digital age, there is a growing expectation that digital technologies should help address social and environmental challenges, such as climate change. In response, digital infrastructural platforms increasingly employ gamification as a communication strategy to promote behaviors aligned with the public good. However, when implemented within commercial platforms, such initiatives often serve market-driven objectives, rendering their social and environmental aims inherently ambivalent. This tension gives rise to a complex relationship between users and platforms, one that this study explores through the lens of users’ perceptions and lived experiences.

This study explores how users interpret their engagement with... (More)
In today’s digital age, there is a growing expectation that digital technologies should help address social and environmental challenges, such as climate change. In response, digital infrastructural platforms increasingly employ gamification as a communication strategy to promote behaviors aligned with the public good. However, when implemented within commercial platforms, such initiatives often serve market-driven objectives, rendering their social and environmental aims inherently ambivalent. This tension gives rise to a complex relationship between users and platforms, one that this study explores through the lens of users’ perceptions and lived experiences.

This study explores how users interpret their engagement with environmentalism and navigate their relationship with the broader commercial system of Alipay, through the case of the gamified green initiative Ant Forest. Using a qualitative case study approach, it draws on ten semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that gamification leads users to hold ambivalent perceptions of their environmental engagement, swinging between feelings of achievement and inadequacy. Similarly, their relationship with Alipay is marked by a tension between agency and powerlessness. To manage this ambivalence, users often choose to trust the platform, a coping mechanism that may, paradoxically, deepen internal conflict. This thesis argues that the struggle for autonomy in the digital age might begin by questioning trust. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Li, Che LU
supervisor
organization
course
MKVM13 20251
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
gamification, Ant Forest, Alipay, consumption, trust, technique, magic
language
English
id
9188370
date added to LUP
2025-07-04 08:41:22
date last changed
2025-07-04 08:41:22
@misc{9188370,
  abstract     = {{In today’s digital age, there is a growing expectation that digital technologies should help address social and environmental challenges, such as climate change. In response, digital infrastructural platforms increasingly employ gamification as a communication strategy to promote behaviors aligned with the public good. However, when implemented within commercial platforms, such initiatives often serve market-driven objectives, rendering their social and environmental aims inherently ambivalent. This tension gives rise to a complex relationship between users and platforms, one that this study explores through the lens of users’ perceptions and lived experiences.

This study explores how users interpret their engagement with environmentalism and navigate their relationship with the broader commercial system of Alipay, through the case of the gamified green initiative Ant Forest. Using a qualitative case study approach, it draws on ten semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that gamification leads users to hold ambivalent perceptions of their environmental engagement, swinging between feelings of achievement and inadequacy. Similarly, their relationship with Alipay is marked by a tension between agency and powerlessness. To manage this ambivalence, users often choose to trust the platform, a coping mechanism that may, paradoxically, deepen internal conflict. This thesis argues that the struggle for autonomy in the digital age might begin by questioning trust.}},
  author       = {{Li, Che}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Playing green: The magic of infrastructural platforms}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}