It is easy to become unsettled by privacy-eroding aspects of awareness tools. But there is another — quite different — result of all this incessant updating: a culture of people who know much more about themselves. Many of the avid Twitterers, Flickrers and Facebook users I interviewed described an unexpected side-effect of constant self-disclosure. The act of stopping several times a day to observe what you’re feeling or thinking can become, after weeks and weeks, a sort of philosophical act. It’s like the Greek dictum to “know thyself,” or the therapeutic concept of mindfulness. (Indeed, the question that floats eternally at the top of Twitter’s Web site — “What are you doing?” — can come to seem existentially freighted. What are you doing?) Having an audience can make the self-reflection even more acute, since, as my interviewees noted, they’re trying to describe their activities in a way that is not only accurate but also interesting to others: the status update as a literary form.

Digital intimacy? Oh la, la, now that is a concept I can get into
Wildy, this is a great clip; one that provokes not only thought but asks questions about ourselves; about human emotion and contact and curiosity and distance all at the same time.

It seems to be one way to reach self-awareness.

I get a buzz of online interaction
gets rid of the blues ansd doldrums for me n e how
electro net treatment

I don't think I need a constant mirror on myself--it's too self -absorbed...and I live in my brain too much already.

Technologically, we can soon approach a point when a full audio-video stream of my life can be constantly broadcast over the web. I can even imagine a further point in time when such streams will be integrated into a virtual reality machine that will allow other persons to be entirely immersed in my dynamic moment to moment sensorium. People will be able to live the lives of others instead of living their own lives. This will certainly give the word 'follower' an entirely new meaning. Ambient intimacy seems to be just the tip of the iceberg. Interesting!

actually, i think that some apps and startups are already providing the service, at least as concerning full audio video coverage of immediate life, the question of course is why would we want such a thing.. i mean what about some privacy?

I could not stop myself from imagining a new kind of DJs and composers that will mix the life streams of many humans to create a multiply lived immersive experience. Life could become really interesting...

awesome idea! silkweaver, a lifejockey, (LJ)

but the reflective bit of twitter might be lost...
I could see people complaining: "My life has been taken out of context".... But then again once one's life is published on the net, who owns the rights for one's life stream?

Privacy problems of today are a child's play.

good point, but then who owns my life stream at present? surely not I..

Andy Warhol was right