Trust your own instincts even when everyone looks at you like you’ve lost your mind. This is a remix. In 2007, I wrote about lifecasting when it was novel and possibly dangerous. Here’s what I was seeing then, rebuilt with what I know now.
A few days ago I discovered a site called Justin.tv. I’m not sure what to make of it yet.
No editing. No fluff. Your life, raw, for all to see. You wear a wireless webcam on your head and broadcast a live stream of your entire day. And night. Watching people sleep. Creepy.
This is lifecasting.
The Experiment
I strapped a 1.6 pound laptop to my body and started broadcasting my life to the internet. Ten days in, something interesting happened.
A stranger showed up at a venue I was at.
She had been watching my stream. She knew where I was. She knew everything about me. I knew nothing about her.
Should I be concerned?
It was always the big threat when MySpace got popular. Strangers finding you. The danger of being too visible. But this girl was non-threatening, cute, and cool. She had never been to a poetry slam before. I was glad she got to experience something I enjoy in person.
What I Got Wrong
I worried about the danger. I asked if broadcasting your life would help or hurt your business. I wondered if anyone was interested in how I spent my day.
I concluded that lifecasting wasn’t dangerous “as long as you’re using it responsibly.” Whatever that means.
What I didn’t see coming: everyone would do this.
Justin.tv became Twitch. The lifecasters became influencers. The danger I worried about became just called “going live.” The voyeurism I found creepy became the entire economy of content.
What I Got Right
I wrote: “Our lives are becoming more and more open, and because of this our lives are increasingly becoming easier to manage.”
That was 2008. Before Instagram. Before TikTok. Before everyone had a ring light.
I was early. I was weird. I was right about the direction, wrong about the destination.
The girl who showed up at the poetry slam because she watched my stream? That’s now called “meeting your audience.” The camera on my lapel that made people uncomfortable? That’s now called “content.”
Being early to something feels like being crazy. You’re doing the thing that will be normal in ten years, but right now everyone looks at you like you’ve lost your mind.
Trust the instinct anyway. The world catches up.
This is the lens the Bible is meant to be read through.
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