What can LinkedIn afford?

This article is adapted from the 'Users and Innovation in Digital Media' final Assignment for the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

LinkedIn is adding three puzzle games on desktop and mobile. Users on the LinkedIn mobile app or the desktop can play one of three different games — Pinpoint, Queens, and Crossclimb. They will be able to play each game once per day, and after the daily session, they will get access to the metrics including high scores and daily streaks. different leaderboards, and who in your networks has also played. The games are available under the LinkedIn News and My Network section on desktop or the My Network tab on mobile (Parrish, 2024)

Analysis:

No digital platform is neutral. The data it creates, the people it attracts, and the conventions that its users adopt — all vary from one platform to the next. LinkedIn is nominally a site for finding jobs, networking with other professionals, and keeping up with the latest news in your field of work. In reality, its relationship to its users and their jobs is more complicated than that. Since 2011 it’s also had a feed: a place to consume endless updates from and about people in and around your industry. The feed then got its publishing platform and went more algorithmic. What had started as a site for job-searching and inter-corporate networking had adopted and adapted to the fundamental priorities of social media.

Affordances refer to the range of functions and constraints that an object provides for, and places upon, structurally situated subjects. It is the capacity to recognize technology as efficacious without succumbing to technological determinism. Artifacts encourage when they foster, breed, and nourish some line of action, while stifling, suppressing, and dissuading others (Davis & Chouinard, 2016).LinkedIn new’s feature can dilute LinkedIn's professional image, potentially alienating core users who prefer a strictly professional environment. Another weakness of this innovation is the potential user distrust. Long-time users may view the introduction of games as a shift away from LinkedIn's core mission. This is also connected with the ‘affordance’ concept because LinkedIn will encourage both professionalism and entertainment.

Affordances are the dynamic link between subjects and objects within sociotechnical systems, allowing for complex analyses of subject-artifact relationships through a user-friendly framework. Analysing this phenomenon through the affordances theoretical framework it is possible to argue that puzzle games can encourage users to spend more time on LinkedIn, increasing overall engagement on the platform. It is also connected with the differentiation phenomena, adding games differentiates LinkedIn from other professional networking sites, potentially attracting a broader audience.

Games can provide LinkedIn with additional data on user preferences and behaviour, which can be used for targeted advertising and personalised content. This can be seen as a ‘datafication’ phenomenon. José van Dijck, surveying various terms that emerged around data processes, offers a critical interpretation of datafication as “a means to access [...] and monitor people’s behavior” (Van Dijck, 2014, p. 1478).

The opportunities for this innovation are the monetisation of the platform and the potential partnerships. Games offer opportunities for monetisation through in-app purchases, advertising, and premium features. LinkedIn can partner with game developers and brands for exclusive content and sponsorships.

The risks of this innovation are connected with potential negative feedback from users who don't appreciate the shift towards gamification. The introduction of games opens up new vectors for cybersecurity threats that could compromise user data and platform integrity. Furthermore, the addition of games could attract regulatory scrutiny, particularly around privacy and in-app purchases.

Conclusion:?

Affordances aren’t rules — I might use LinkedIn to promote my business, hire an employee, to sell an online course. Since LinkedIn can afford to connect people and companies, it is possible also to understand this phenomenon as a reconceptualization of the Linkedin can encourage users to do: search for job opportunities, connect with work colleagues and publish work-related news. From May 2024 on, LinkedIn will be a multi-purpose platform that can also afford to entertain users through online games. This can lead to monetisation of the platform which can be an opportunity to make the company more profitable. On the other hand, there is a risk of both cybersecurity threats and monitoring of user’s behaviour.?

References:

Alex Fitzpatrick. (2024, January 29). Games are helping the New York Times thrive amid media chaos. https://www.axios.com/. Retrieved May 4, 2024, from https://www.axios.com/2024/01/29/wordle-nyt-games-news-media-layoffs

Davis, J. L., & Chouinard, J. B. (2016). Theorizing affordances: from request to refuse. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 36(4), 241–248. https://doi.org/10.1177/0270467617714944

Norman, D. A. (1988). The psychology of everyday things. New York, NY: Basic Books

Parrish, A. (2024, May 1). LinkedIn is the latest company to get in on gaming. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/24145605/linkedin-gaming-puzzle-game-nyt-wordle-netflix-games

van Dijck, J. (2014). Datafication, Dataism and Dataveillance: Big Data Between Scientific Paradigm and Ideology. Surveillance & Society,12(2), 197–208. doi:10.24908/ss.v12i2.4776