Lifestreaming without an audience is merely tracking, not sharing.

Evidence

The audience is a crucial element of lifestreaming, because life-streaming without an audience is simply tracking. Lifestreaming involves broadcasting personal data to other people, whether anyone with an internet connection or a subgroup of readers defined by a privacy filter. … Audience members watch each other’s actions by consuming their content, and by doing so formulate a view of what is normal, accepted, or unaccepted in the community. This understanding of audience creates an internalized gaze that reflects community norms. Members of the tech scene imagine how the audience will view their own lifestreamed self-presentation, and alter it accordingly. Monitoring of oneself and others thus becomes an expected and normative part of this social interaction. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 548

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the core concept of lifestreaming by distinguishing it from mere self-tracking — the audience is the defining feature.
• XREF: The ‘internalized gaze’ echoes Foucault’s panopticon and also connects to the reader’s earlier notes on the networked audience as self-monitoring. — connects to: Lifestreaming is continuous self-sharing to an invisible networked audience — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 538; Lifestreaming is distinguished from personal diaries by networked public readability — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 545; Publishing personal life online aims at audience discovery, not record-keeping — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 377

Broader Connections

• Publishing personal life online aims at audience discovery, not record-keeping #corroborates (0.85) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 377