One of 2009's biggest trends was real estate industry adoption ofsocial media marketing. What I find striking is the intimacy of thesocial interchange:

(Conversing about a chain restaurant on the opposite coast... it is just like a cafe conversation...)

The real estate industry, one of the most socially networked societies in part for the purpose of building business, is becoming a bellwether for how people interact in a new society. The new intimacy surprises the same people whose first impressions of Twitter was "why are they telling me their daily life stuff?". In fact, it's now the norm to weave the details of daily life onto the Facebook / Twitter lifestream.

I had not thought of using social media as my personal life stream.That reflects my personality, which reflects the Japanese cultural norm of not talking about yourself. Many of my relatives and other Japanese we know are also bewildered at daily chronicling, as if it makes no sense.

However, I'm starting to see how life streaming eventually becomes a diary. You're in essence writing a book about yourself in real time, for the rest of your life... I think that long term view is intriguing. One of my New Year's resolutions is to try to life stream more, albeit in the guise of a diary. Here's my family:


Baby steps