Imagine a future in which you earn badges and achievements at every turn. Meanwhile, companies are constantly encouraging you to level up your life as a way to draw you in. Perhaps you earn a special badge as you run the treadmill at the gym or you level up when you buy so many cans of soda. Perhaps you're waiting at the bus stop and a billboard asks you to help solve a difficult math problem.

According to a new study, gaming is going to be creeping into our lives in a big way in the years to come ... and we may not even realize when we're playing.

On Friday, Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Elon University released the results of a survey of more than 1,000 Internet experts, researchers and observers. About half of those who responded to the survey said the use of gaming mechanics, feedback loops and rewards to spur interaction and boost loyalty will gain ground between now and 2020.

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"In addition to their uses for crowd-sourcing solutions, game-style approaches are expected to continue to make inroads in training, personal health, business and education," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, in a press release. "The experts point out that game mechanics offer advantages in encouraging specific behavior and generating measureable feedback."

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