It has been assumed that social networking is a waste of time, but Dublin’s Science Gallery has revealed that it might be worth a lot of money in the future. The Lifelogging showcase is being displayed to raise awareness of exactly hoe much information users divulge on a regular basis and explores how even the most trivial of things may be coveted by big business’s to capitalise the tastes and experiences of potential users.
“Now is the optimal time to do the exhibition before the idea becomes mass adopted. With this exhibition, we really want to look into the positives of these technologies, how they can be integrated more into society in the future, and the impact that they can have on society.” says researcher Gina Kelly
One particularly interesting project shows the contributions of technologies such as GPS to a more data conscious world and speculates hypothetical future developments such as celebrity tracking devices and maybe even a direct line to the local priest.
There is so much more interesting projects throughout the exhibition including a stand where visitors are asked to fill in a questionnaire indication if they would be willing to sell on their pictures and other social media thoughts for a profit.
Bigfoot researchers Kevin Koidl and Parsa Ghaffari have developed a system for exporting data and metrics from social media feeds such as Twitter and Facebook, which could then be used to generate a visual “digital footprint” demonstrating how shy or extrovert the user is, and how much information they release.
The Lifelogging exhibition runs in the Science Gallery, Trinity College, from February 13th to April 17th.
