While at the Jersey Shore this week, where the weather was significantly better than its been around here, I stumbled upon an article from McClatchy Newspapers in The Press of Atlantic City about “lifecasting.”

If you are not familiar with that term, as the headline suggests, lifecasting is more than your typical Facebook status update or tweet about where you are heading for lunch. These are people, and there are thousands, who are using portable video cameras, web cams, and camera phones to chronicle or even live stream most of the events that occur in their everyday lives.

Read the story of lifecaster Shama Kabani of Frisco, TX:

When Shama Kabani of Frisco, Texas, got married last month, she considered tweeting as she walked down the aisle.

But then she thought better of it. (Not to mention, her phone mysteriously disappeared about an hour before the ceremony.)

For Kabani, 24, owner of Click to Client, a social-media consulting firm, using Twitter during her wedding probably wouldn’t have surprised anyone, but even she has social-networking limits.

“He deserves better than that,” Kabani said of her new husband.

On a normal day, Kabani estimates she spends six to seven hours a day on social-media networks. She has more than 17,000 followers on Twitter and so many friends on Facebook – 5,000 – that she can’t add any more. She also has an online TV show, Shama.Tv, in which she talks about social media.

“I had my first computer in the fourth grade, and I haven’t looked back since,” she said.

The story of Shama and others made me wonder if there are any lifecasters in Erie. Although I could not find anyone with an “Erie” tag at Justin.tv or even through an extensive Google search, there is a gal from Erie, Desiree Cramer, who used to room and produce videos with Pittsburgh-native and popular lifecaster Justine Ezarik back in 2007 and before.

I find this wholesale sharing of personal information amusing given the context of identity theft and protecting privacy rights.  Are these lifecasters a serious element in our social media structure, or are they just wannabe reality TV stars bypassing the TV network gatekeepers?