News Report #3

Article review: Kathryn Smith

Review: Lifestreaming sites can organize Web lives
By RACHEL METZ, AP Technology Writer Wed Sep 24, 5:17 PM ET

With the expansion of internet use, keeping up with activities, and tracking down friends can be hard to maintain. From posting pictures, to emailing friends, to even posting blog comments the rise of lifestreaming sites are becoming more and more popular to help keep it all together. These online destinations are like an overlook of what you and your friends are doing on social media sites across the internet.
One internet site I am able to relate to which uses a similar, but simpler form of lifestreaming websites, is Facebook. When you sign onto Facebook, it offers a running list of “feeds” specifying your friends’ activities. This feature allows you to see what your friends are up to and view added programs on their profiles. I am able to relate to this because I am able to get on and view information about a particular friend and see what they have been up to, even if I have not directly had a chance to communicate with them. Lifestreaming sites are a “super-charged” version of Facebook. They collect information not only about what you and your friends are up to on Facebook, but all over the Internet as well. On these lifestreaming websites you are able to see what other sites your friends visit, who else they communicate with, posted comments and pictures, as well as many other activities they have posted to help keep contacts up-to-date with what they might be up to.
With lifestreaming websites, it allows you to organize friends into groups, and organize other activities you are involved with on the web. For example, if you want to be able to keep up and communicate with your colleagues from work, you may put them into a group together, whereas you may form another group for your closest friends. Lifestreaming sites help one feel more connected and organized on the Web.
One issue, addressed in the article, as well as an issue I would be concerned about if I decided to use these Lifestreaming sites, is privacy. With the rapid growth of the web, and more information is readily available at just a click, it makes me stop and think who else might be viewing my information, and can this be harmful to my safety? With the lifestreaming site, although you can limit the amount of information people are allowed to view, new members on the sites can access information provided. As the internet continues to grow, this is a concern I myself, and feel many others will be something that will need to be heavily looked into to protect the public.