In the past, when one thought of lifestyle management, computers and smartphones did not necessarily enter the picture. Lifestyle management literally meant managing your lifestyle, not managing the tools that facilitate it. But today, our world is digital, and often revolves, at least partially, around things like Facebook and Twitter. Thumbing through the “Lifestyle” section of your local newspaper doesn’t do it anymore. (Actually, neither does the local newspaper.) A discussion of lifestyle management today has to include all things digital. And, thanks to digitalization, it’s easier than ever for outside entities to influence your lifestyle; for example, the marketing company that focuses on using things like Twitter and Facebook to promote bands, products and services. Sometimes it’s not a marketing company, but the “retailer” itself. (Remember the tremendous Internet buzz generated by the producers of “The Blair Witch Project”? )
Moreover, social media has become an important outlet for self-expression, and, as a result, political and social upheaval (can you say “Arab spring”?) Websites have sprung up with advice on how you can “adopt a social media lifestyle.”
But as you gravitate toward social media, you’re relying more and more on that ubiquitous entity known as “the cloud.” Not to worry. The Twitter cloud, the Facebook cloud, the Amazon cloud, the Apple iCloud etc. don’t need your help to stay healthy and accessible. But what about your “personal cloud”? Do you even have one? If you’re managing your lifestyle through social media, you’ve got to be maintaining a calendar, notes emails and texts etc. That means you need a personal cloud, or a family cloud, a group cloud, whatever. You need a safe and secure way to backup and store the things that are important to your lifestyle. And, you need a solution that is easy to access and easy to sync among your various devices.
Virtually all of the big players are offering their own proprietary clouds, or partnering with others, but none of these offer the platform and device agnostic advantages of a truly personal cloud provider like ElephantDrive.
Lifestyle management has become much more social media centric, and this process will accelerate. Don’t fight it, join the party. And by all means, when you do, make sure you’re not completely dependent on someone else’s cloud.
Found a great theme song for people who want their own personal cloud.
