Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Playing Four Square

No I'm not talking about the playground game (but I was a big fan in fifth grade), but the social media service. In case you hasn't seen foursquare its a social media devise where you can check in at places to tell your friends where you are and what your doing.

In theory I like the idea behind it. I think it's great for somewhere like NYC, where so many places are so close together. I like the idea that you could be somewhere and find out your friend is right next door so you're able to meet up. We've all had those chance encounters where we've run into a friend randomly, and by using foursquare you have the ability to meet up with your friends for a minute or two when your already close by. I mean let's imagine your on a you're trying to meet up with friends on a bar crawl. Instead of having to meet them at the very start you could know exactly where they are midway through the night and meet them even if they change their mind on where they want to go.

While I do see the pros of it, I think I in some ways the cons outweigh it. I just think overall it feels sketchy. And it almost send an open invitation for people to stalk you. I do get that you can make your actions private. But if they're completely private you can't really "network" using it. I also think I'm already on-line so many others places already (the blog, facebook, twitter, flickr, and I still have my myspace although its rarely used. Come to think of it I had a friendster account back in the day to), but do I really need somewhere else where people can find me?

So tell me, do you foursquare? Is so why do your do it? Or on the other hand why are you not on foursquare? And should I stop worrying about the sketchiness of it all and just join foursquare?

~Shoshanah

5 comments:

  1. I'm on foursquare. I like getting the badges and mayorships :)

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  2. I'm not on foursquare. I'm getting really burnt out with the whole "social media" thing. Why do I want everybody to be able to follow my every move and be able to reach me every moment of every day?? The truth is, I don't. So I've been cutting back :)

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  3. I would never do it - mostly because I live ALONE in a relatively SMALL town!!

    But I do see the logic of doing it if you lived somewhere like NYC or something.

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  4. I've downloaded it but I haven't started using it. I can't decide if I really want people to know where I am and such. So I'm still having mixed reviews about it.

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  5. I am on there. I love the badges and mayorships, as silly as it is. I have it connected to my twitter, so when I check in somewhere, it sends out a tweet. I haven't had a problem with it, but I can see where it could be. I don't check in everywhere I go, and definitely not at home or work, which I see a lot of people doing! Also, my photo is just a pink peony...so if a random person saw that I was there, they couldn't find me, based on my photo :)

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