Big Brother Is You, Watching

Trendwatching.com and Springwise claim that the ‘life caching’ trend is here to stay. Thanks to new technologies and tools such as (micro) blogging and high definition camera phones, more and more people collect, store and display their entire lives, “for private use, or for friends, family, even the entire world to peruse”. Real-time social video broadcasting seems to be a logical next step in this trend, after blogging and moblogging (connecting camera phones to online diaries). In that case a product like the Looxcie camera can be considered a very interesting innovation. Described a camcorder for the social media age, Looxcie is a wearable Bluetooth device that lets users capture video of everything they see.


The developer states that the ‘social video’ camcorder fits comfortably over the ear, and points wherever the wearer looks. Looxcie is always on, continuously videoing (which means there is no record button). When users experience something worth saving and/or sharing, they press the ‘instant clip’ button to save a clip of the last thirty seconds. The device itself is able to accommodate up to five hours of recording and hundreds of instant clips. Looxcie comes with a smartphone application which turns the users’s phone into a viewfinder, remote control and video editing tool.

“Human beings (fueled by a need for self-worth, validation, control, vanity, even immortality) love to collect and store possessions, memories, experiences, in order to create personal histories, mementoes of their lives, or just to keep track for practical reasons. And with the experience economy still gaining ground — with consumers more often favoring the intangible over the tangible — collecting, storing and displaying experiences is ready for its big moment.”