Facebook has just rolled out a new piece of functionality allowing you to comment within your friend’s minifeed.

http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=20877767130

“Now you can easily converse around friends’ statuses, application stories, new friendships, videos, and most other stories you see on their profile. Just click on the comment bubble icon to write a comment or see comments other people have written”

Although this may not sound particularly interesting, it signifies an important step for Facebook in further positioning itself as THE social network, challenging the rise in FriendFeed (a growing online lifestream). This notion of lifestreaming is where social networks are heading because it allows for the aggregation of information from multiple sources meaning people can comment/ discuss/ debate things (essentially their life as it happens) at one destination without having to go to multiple sources.

What does that mean?

It means that Facebook is quickly establishing itself as the one-stop social network allowing you to DO everything in one place. What will be interesting is to see how ‘lifestreaming’ will take off once the iphone is released, and people use their Facebook minifeed from their mobile.

The iphone will allow for even greater portability of information as people can update their mini feed (their life) ‘on-the-go’. As you walk out of a clothing store, you can tell all your friend’s about your new jeans as well as upload a photo. This will obviously integrate with GPS which Twitter is already doing, allowing you to access Facebook and find out if any of your friends are in your geographic location and see what they are doing RIGHT NOW.

This signifies an even greater shrinking of time and faster distribution of conversations as micro updates on our life transform the way we articulate ourselves to others via a data stream.

What are the implications of this?

Technology is transforming our consciousness in a profound way. Many are saying we are seeing an ‘atomisation of information’ which is exactly what lifestreaming is about. I may not have spoken to you in 2 years, but I am still keeping tabs on your life and engaging with you in some way - I know what people in my year are doing, how they FEEL, where they’re travelling, if they’re struggling in life etc. I know what you had for breakfast, I know where you work, and if you like your work, if you’re lazy at work. It disconcerting to allow ourselves to be so trackable. How is all this data collected and organised?

I think lifestreaming fundamentally undermines meaningful conversations and connections in the real world though some believe data portability and aggregation into feeds facilitates conversations which would otherwise never occur (keeping up to date with people you rarely see).

Will technology/Facebook eventually become the facilitator of all our anecdotes to our friends?

Will we get to the point where lifestreaming is so integrated with our lives that we feel the need to post something online as soon as it happens?

I believe we will, and mobile phones will allow this to occur at an absolutely micro level.

Eg.

‘on bus stuck in traffic’

‘out at club and beer just cost $8, what a rip off!’

‘just did a poo’.

I think lifestreaming is going to have a profound effect on our relationships with others, and it brings us one step closer to living in the virtual world. The anthropologist Leroi Gourhan described humans as an orchid, having a big beautiful flower (brain) and an atrophied body - a genetic monstrosity. As our bodies continue to atrophe and our lives continue to be articulated through technology, our need for a body diminishes.

Eventually, our consciousness will just be downloaded onto a hard drive and we will become the world wide web. Although first we need to identify what consciousness is.