So, I'm in a hotel room in Boston, listening to some Moby in my iTunes, and I happen to notice a little blue icon in my list of playlists that I haven't seen before... it says: Joe Below's Music (name changed to protect the identity of the innocent).
And now, I can't help myself but to scan through his list of tunes. It looks nothing like mine. It's like the obsessive/compulsive scanning of friends of friends on Orkut, except here, I can listen to Air Supply, or Gloria Estefan, or Sha-Na-Na, or something called "conjugal visit" which looks suspiciously like it might be a voice memo, so I'm staying away from it.
I look in my iTunes preferences, and I notice that I have sharing enabled too... so he might be perusing my collection of music at the same time. Anonymous intimacy.
There's something creepy about this experience. Hotel rooms when you're by yourself are already a little creepy, since you don't really know what's going on behind that wall. But now, thanks to WiFi and Rendezvous, the walls become virtual and I have a glimpse into one of my neighbors' soul. Or Pop, or Disco, or whatever. Now, I wonder, is he next door? Or above? Or below?
I check the lock on my door. But I also feel a little bit like a Peeping Tom. Is there a word for this phenomenon yet?
I personally find it to be more fascinating than creepy, but I also understand your feelings, especially with something as personal as music.
But this area goes beyond the person-to-person sharing, too. I know folks have been freaked out, even years ago, by Amazon.com recommendations. "Why does it think I would like THAT?!" or "Oh man, I bought a book about growing up gay for my cousin... now does Amazon think I'm gay?" Amazon.com is a company, a set of computers... but at the same time, there's a feeling and perhaps even a concern underneath: how much does what I browse / buy / even think about say about who I am? And how is this shared or interpreted by others?
I'm sure that lines will get even more blurry as collaborative sharing and filtering becomes more a part of our every day life. And while I'm FAR from an expert in this area, I've long been intrigued by these issue and I even started a Collaborative Filtering group on orkut here:
http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=693
Returning to the music issue, though... I wanted to add that Napster also allows for playlist sharing by default (you can even see who else is streaming a track that you're currently listening to), but it doesn't quite have the same iTunes is-he-in-the-next-room-over feel, I admit :)
Posted by: Adam Lasnik | February 06, 2004 at 09:22 PM
This ad-hoc local network phenomenon is happening all over the world now, driven by Net-connected cellphones (& Macs!) Kids today are growing up with this tech-enabled social dynamic -- it's an exciting fronteir for new products & services.
Posted by: AJ Kim | February 07, 2004 at 05:10 PM