Lifestyle Ideas

Lifestyle Computing

  • Mobile Blogging: As smartphones proliferate and more tablets come on the market, look for blogging via mobile devices to spike. “Mobloggers” can update frequently on the go—posts tend to be short and photo-heavy—turning blogs into real-time records from travelers, amateur journalists, sports fans, etc. Platforms like Tumblr and Posterous make moblogging easy, providing the option to call in, text or e-mail blog updates.
  • Digital Downtime: Studies showing the benefits of taking time away from the multi-screen environment are encouraging people to De-Tech for hours, even days at a time. Look for more employers, schools, media outlets and parents to endorse digital downtime. These mindful breaks from digital input will be intended to relieve stress and foster creativity
  • Personal Taste Graphs: New ways to chart who likes what and predict what else will interest each individual will pop up on the Web. Hunch.com calls its individual profiles “taste graphs,” while Gravity uses the term “interest graph.” These and other startups in the
    space are centered around “Helping the right information find you” (Gravity’s tagline). Hunch looks at what users and their friends like or follow on Facebook and Twitter, then offers recommendations based on the collective data it’s gathered.
  • Social Networking Surveillance: The U.S. government is moving to have Congress require social networking sites to be technically capable of complying with wiretap orders. The U.S. government already monitors certain profiles (including citizenship applicants suspected of marrying for a green card), as do others (e.g., Israel has used Facebook profiles to catch women illegally avoiding army service). At least a few social media monitoring services track what clients’ employees post online outside of work.
  • Social Objects: Services like Stickybits enable users to attach digital content (videos, links, audio, text) to physical objects, and we’ll see virtual communities form around these real-world items. While social objects open up opportunities for brands to connect with their customers, brands will also have to be prepared for consumers’ experiences around social objects to overshadow the objects themselves.