There’s been a bit of mainstream publicity recently about ‘the guy who’s selling his life on eBay’. Apparently it’s not the first time this kind of thing has been done.

Essentially, his long-term (and real life) partner left him after 12 years so he’s decided to sell everything he owns in one bulk lot and move on.

You can find out more about Ian Usher and the contents of his auction (ie, life) on his website: www.alife4sale.com. Or take a look at his YouTube clip.

For Ian, things didn’t work out the way he’d planned, so he’s clearing the decks and starting again. Fair enough.

What’s also in the realm of selling your life (and I suspect the older you are, the creepier and crasser you’ll find it), is a website called Dandelife, which lets users create and share their life stories online.

The homepage proclaims that: “Dandelife is a place for you to record the events of your life, past and present, public and private.” ‘Lifecasting’ as they call it.

Interesting idea. But let’s look a bit closer.

Dandelife also offers users the ‘opportunity’ to brand aspects of their life story and sell these to companies.

“Users will be able to make their stories available for branding by corporate sponsors bidding for content.”

Awesome. I guess it’s no different to wearing Nike shoes, right?

Although shoes do wear out, and you can always take them off. It’s a bit harder taking your life off the web.

Are we all for sale at varying levels of abstraction?

If you sell your labour for a wage, you are, by definition, receiving some form of direct or indirect corporate sponsorship.

In fact, unless you’re leading a completely monastic and self-sufficient lifestyle deep in the Ureweras, living off twigs, leaves and small marsupials, then there’s simply no escaping the fact that when you participate in a market economy (you’re doing it right now), you’re selling something – even if it’s goodwill.

But where does it end? And should it? Is this just more middle-class hand-wringing from another Westerner spoiled with the luxury of time to stop and think?
 
If you have a social networking profile, your data is being sliced and diced and sold to somebody. Do you really care?

What wouldn’t you sell? And what shouldn’t be for sale? Or are you so numb to the omnipresent tentacles of production and consumption that you just shrug your shoulders and click ‘Next’?

The only thing I’m certain of is that for poor old Ian Usher, he’s not actually selling his life – he’s selling a massive pile of stuff – and that is not a life.

I hope he gets (a new) one soon.