Why, Blippy, why???

... that is the question.

I was joking to a friend the other day about the decline in online privacy (I use the work 'joking' loosely), and said, "Can you imagine if all your purchases were online? Now there're no secrets!!"

Sounds like the work of some nasty, fascist-leaning conglomerate. But Blippy is such a cute-sounding name. The tagline on the site cracks me up (again, in an unfunny way): "Blippy is a fun way to see and discuss what everyone is buying." As opposed to, say, rifling through your friend's credit card receipts or perhaps simply asking them.

But no fascist conspiracy here; you sign up to have your purchases broadcast for all to see:

Your friends have shared 6 new purchases on Blippy!
See them all: http://blippy.com/login?s=d

huyhong spent $7.09 at In N Out Burger (6 comments) http://blippy.com/t/iz45?s=d
cte got 1 album from iTunes for $7.99 (4 comments) http://blippy.com/t/iwiz?s=d
ijustine got 1 tv show from iTunes for $1.99 (1 comment) http://blippy.com/t/j02m?s=d
leolaporte spent $31.49 at Amazon (1 like) http://blippy.com/t/ivnr?s=d
pud got 1 app from iTunes http://blippy.com/t/iyws?s=d
saarsaar rented 9 movies at Netflix http://blippy.com/t/iyw2?s=

To be honest, I don't know any of these people. You can be notified of the mundane buying habits of anyone who's available. This particular haul, I have to say, isn't very interesting: iTunes, In N Out burger, Amazon, Netflix. The discussion around the In N Out Burger went something like this:

X doesn't let me go to In N Out Burger, but it is sooooo good!

Why not?

Looks yummy!

No animal fries?

There are multiple lessons to be derived from this:

* nothing is considered too private to share with friends, and strangers, online.
* Most people's shopping habits are really boring.
* Most people also appear to have too much free time on their hands. Shirkey is all about the 'cognitive surplus' digital media will afford us and our big brains. But seriously, what are the odds we'll just fill up that free time inventing new ways to ingest beer, nap, watch porn and surf online?