Personal Diaries

In good old days, youngsters used to pen their daily experiences in much coveted personal diaries. Some did it for the sake of it; others found writing as the perfect vent for their oozing thoughts. In today’s world, diaries have transformed into digital space. Except, these are not personal. Far from it.

Blogs, posts, discussion forums seem to be everywhere for everyone. Actually, even these seem outdated. People want to tweet – “publish” – and “follow” – what they ate two minutes ago, and which pizza corner they ordered from. Sure it’s a cool thing to share with your family, friends, or may be colleagues. And sure, it is dream come true data for marketers. Now they know what time a pizza ad should air on your iPhone.

Apparently, people want to stay connected. As with any such new technology, one of the first thing that crosses my mind is privacy and security concerns. You can write something stupid and your boss can read it. Or you may be a youngster publishing details about your road trips, only to be preyed by solicitors. Whether that is a valid concern or not, I try to think in terms of an analogy.

Few years ago, people were shy in giving out their credit card numbers for internet commerce. The fear was someone could steal and use them for personal buying. Smart web retailers like Amazon calmed their users by breaking the online buying into two steps. Customers did the research, filled their shopping carts and placed their orders as the first step. They felt comfortable doing so. Second step was to provide sensitive information -- credit card numbers, for which users called a phone number and talked to a human. Gradually, people became comfortable providing card numbers online and skipped the second step.

Today, some people may have similar concerns about privacy, perhaps only for a short-term. Such “reluctants” may only be sharing – if at all – non-personal stuff sparing intimate details for in person talk. But it is only a matter of time when they’ll skip the second step -- if they haven't already. In today’s world, our bank accounts, credit card numbers, social security numbers – all are floating somewhere. We have definitely past the second step.

But have we shared everything? May be not. Services like twitter still operate in the text world. People still have to volunteer the information. Then there is all this information that we give out "involuntarily." For example, what songs do we listen to and at what time, or what websites we visit and how often, is all recorded. I put involuntarily in quotes as we do accept the terms and conditions of all the services that we use, even if we do not read them line by line. Even if we try, yawns take over and we quickly scroll to the bottom to quickly click on "I Accept" buttons.

The result is a new kind of market place. There, our email addresses are sold in megabytes; bank details by the dozen, and … you get the idea. Continuous evolution of technology will enable us to share even more about ourselves. Blogs and YouTube are probably dated information. Twitter like billboards are probably up-to-date, but it still is a lot of text. Next, we will be sharing live video about ourselves. Youngsters in love will find that very appealing.

May be there is a merit in this abundance of shared information. Companies like Google can spot trends and find what people are up to. It knows which regions have more flu patients than others. Similar analyses can be and is being done on online trends and used to determine what people do -- or would like to do. As I ponder about my weekend, may be I should ask Google what I should be doing. But it may ask me what I ate yesteday. Or which pizza place do I go to. I always wonder how gen-xers feel comfortable publishing all bits of information about themselves. May be I am getting old.