I was just browsing through the Lifestyle section of the Chrome Extensions library when it finally occurred to me to ask myself, Do I have a Lifestyle?
One would normally think so, after all, since one is indeed alive. The two go together, don’t you think? However, I began to take note of just what it is that the people of Google have listed under their Lifestyle Extensions section: endless ways of gathering links to blast them in some form to your friends.
One’s friends are one’s commodity. You have to have lots of them, and they all have to be using the same program. Almost certainly, you have to be sure that they want to be bombarded constantly with what you want them to see, or with where you are. I gave up Foursquare and Gowalla because I couldn’t think of anyone whom I wanted to know where I was. Yes, even if I was just at Starbuck’s. Who needs to know you’re drinking coffee?
It’s rather like the space colonists in Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot series, who are in constant contact with their friends electronically — only electronically. The thought of a physical encounter with another is met with abject terror. I love gadgets, but being in the same room with other people can be a good thing, too.
white pebble 