“What on earth is ‘Lifecasting’?” is what I imagine you might be thinking right now.Though you might have not realised it, you already are a ‘lifecaster’: still sounds weird? Let me explain.
Lifecasting is the art of making moulds of individual body parts. These three-dimensional copies can range from an entire torso all the way down to intricate details like fingerprints and pores.
Now however, with the rapid developments in technology and how different elements of technology communicate with each other, it’s a different beast altogether, and the definition of what we consider lifecasting to be has changed somewhat. The new definition is probably closer to: “the creation of a digital copy, and broadcasting of a person's day-to-day life”.
Connection is life
Telling stories and sharing special moments have always been an important part of human nature, as we all yearn for that sense of belonging.
What started as rough drawings in a cave, has evolved to modern sharing, which we use to document and share our life moments. Parties with friends, getting married, moving house. All the important stages of our lives have moved from good old fashioned face-to-face conversations to updating our social profiles on our smartphones. Social media has just fed our desire to share and connect.
Just as you’d feel lost without an arm or leg, many feel like they’d be lost without their smartphone, or an internet connection.
But as we share more and get accustomed to updating our friends and family on such a regular basis we still have one bottleneck holding us back: connectivity.
If you’ve ever been wandering across a room holding your phone out and praying to find some signal strength, you know what I’m talking about. There is nothing worse than having a hilarious joke or cute picture of your dog ready and not being able to contact someone to ask them a question or share what you’re up to. All because your pesky signal is on the blink!
As we become more connected, this limitations become more and more disrupting. And it doesn’t just affect people but also businesses: not just because businesses are as connected as people, but also because they depend on the internet to connection to the bank in order to process card payments.
Generic cute dog image
As we depend on technology so much in our day to day lives we need to make sure that this does not happen. We need to be able to rely on our connection. Just think, how often do you check your phone is in your pocket, or bag? How often do you leave your house without it, and if it’s not with you, do you still check if it’s there? Have you ever felt lost, or disconnected because you've had to stop messaging someone due to a dead battery? For a large majority of “Generation Y” (Whatever that is right?) the former question tends to be answered with a yes, and as smartphone technology is evolving, and more people are jumping on the technology bandwagon (even my 56 year old former self-confessed luddite father uses a tablet multiple times a day). is becoming ingrained in a higher proportion of people than ever before. It’s become a part of us, figuratively speaking at least!
Technology on the move
Many of us take the internet connections we have in everyday life when we’re on the move for granted. If someone told you 15 years ago that you would be able to upload pictures to a social media account, to share to your friends or indeed the whole world, do that from your phone, would you have believed them? Probably not, unless you had some incredible foresight, I’d imagine you’d probably also ask what social media actually was.
3G now covers the majority of the densely populated areas in the UK and 4G in some of the major cities. You can use these connections to query where the best place to eat is, how you can get there and most importantly let everyone know you’re doing it. It is only possible when all this technology comes together.
In addition to the smartphone companies are developing companion technology that runs alongside your existing devices. As I’m typing up this blog, I’m wearing an Apple smartwatch which allows me to receive notifications from my phone, change my music on the fly and even track my activity using a pedometer. For those into fitness there are devoted devices that can track your heart rate, where you have gone and how hard you have pushed yourself. Google glass moves some of the functionality of your smartphone up into your eyesight allowing you to take photo’s using a simple voice command.
Are we being watched?
When we talk about how much information is available about you on the internet, this is called online presence. An average social media page can contain the same amount of data as a CV you would send to an employer. And I’m sure we all know, many employers will look for you on social media Combine this with the fact search engines know what you’ve purchased from online retailers, who your favourite bands are and what your general preferences for all sorts of other things. What you get is a profile which others can use to target products or even offer you a job prospect. Giving an app like ‘Glympse’ access to your location data you can provide your friends an update as to your location letting them know how long it will take for you to arrive, or even to allow a group to meet up together.
All this information will end up attaching itself to your digital self if you allow it, letting your online presence grow until it begins to mirror and complement your offline life. This blog post has barely scratched the surface as to what lifecasting can be interpreted as, such is the vast scale of the smart technology boom over the course of the last decade. As everything comes together the line between our online and offline self is becoming increasingly blurred.
What a time to be alive.
What part of your digital presence do you enjoy the most?
Let us know in the comments!
