1984 - not an instruction manual

Preparing for an upcoming presentation, I was considering the documentation vs. experience trend and its impact on consumer consumption habits.

As Ricky Van Veen notes, people are more into recording the trip to Disney World than the trip itself. A socially-inclined, smartphone-toting park guest could check in on Foursquare, record their mouse-inspired lunch on Foodspotting and brag about their Phineas and Ferb t-shirt on Barcode Hero.

This is a nice change of pace because normally they're just logging in their Phineas and Ferb TV time on Tunerfish. And it doesn't have to stop there, with apps like Stickybits and Layar the park guest has even more opps to record actions deemed private by most of us.

Even one of the most private actions of all can now be recorded thanks to Sit or Squat (an inductee into the brand utility hall of fame, imho).

Overshare Begets Groupthink?
This is not to say Facebook is Skynet or the classic book 1984 has come true. Orwell's tome was written during a much different time and is not a comment on consumer use of technology.

But it amazes me that:

We've gone from a society that fears the documentation of our actions by an organization to one that willingly records and shares them with social media sites.

I'm obviously comfortable doing so. But even I have limits as to what I share online. Surprised?

I'm not suggesting we rethink this, jump off the grid and start lining our hats with aluminum foil. But as consumers we need to think about our information sharing in the big picture. Consumers get a sense of entitlement with free sites like Facebook and Twitter. But your privacy is a participation sport. And this is bigger than game mechanics. Spend some time with the terms of service around the sites with which you share information.

Thankfully there are people much smarter than me dedicated to following the topic of privacy. They can help. Belly up to this site and spend some quality time.

Comments

[David E. Bowman]

Can't wait to see that presentation at SummitUp. Thanks for the link love KD!