I’m a big nerd when it comes to social media. I’m on it all day. I bring my laptop into work every day and use it to play music, stream radio stations and to keep tabs on what’s going on with Twitter and Facebook. I’ve been on both for a few years and I’ve seen trends come and go. One that is popular right now is called Foursquare. Foursquare tries to almost make life into a game. Here’s the premise:

You download the Foursquare application to your smartphone. Then, you go and live your life. You go to lunch, coffee shops, the grocery store, anywhere. But, when you get there, you start up your Foursquare app and “check in.” The whole idea behind Foursquare is that it’s a great way for your friends and family to know where you are so that if they too are on Foursquare, they can leave comments and recommendations for different locales. In their words:

“You’ll find that as your friends use foursquare to check-in, you’ll start learning more about the places they frequent. Not only is it a great way to meet up with nearby friends, but you’ll also start to learn about their favorite spots and the new places they discover.”

One of the “benefits” of Foursquare is that once you visit a certain location enough times, more than anyone else that checks in, you then become the “mayor” of that location. So I have friends updating on Twitter and Facebook that they are the “mayor” of Jimmy John’s, Jordan Creek Town Center, QuikTrip and yes, even the mayor of their own home. The benefits for businesses is that it creates loyalty. They can offer discounts and freebies to the current mayor of their business. Only one person can be the mayor of a business at any time. There isn’t any sort of hierarchy. There’s no “deputy mayor” or “treasurer” of any location. Just mayor. I’ll even get updates that one person has ousted another as the mayor of a location. Then, as you progress through Foursquare, you earn “badges.” You earn points for checking into new places for the first time, for bringing friends and for going back multiple times in a day. Accrue enough points and you’re awarded a new badge. Again, turing everyday life, into a game.

Foursquare annoys me. First of all, I follow people on Twitter because I find them interesting. I genuinely care what they have to say. Now, I have these people flooding me all day with where they are and where they’ve been. I really don’t care. If I wanted to know where you are, I would call you.
“But you earn badges!”
Yes. Virtual badges that mean absolutely nothing. I don’t care how good of friends we are, if you tell me that you have a bunch of badges from Fourquare, I won’t care.
“But I’m the mayor of (local coffee shop) and I get half off a latte!”
Yeah, cool. In order to save that $2, you had to come by how many times?


Here are the reasons I don’t like Foursquare:
Foursquare is like living with your parents again. You’re having to tell it (them) where you are at all times. “Hi Mom. Yes, yes I made it to Valley West Mall. I’m just checking in.”

When I’m with my group of friends, I don’t want to walk into a lunch spot, only to see them all whip out their phones to “check in.” How about instead of playing your game, you just enjoy the company of everyone you’re with at that time?

It’s easy to cheat the system. Businesses, listen up. I silently tested out Foursquare and became the mayor of six different locations - without walking into the establishment. I didn’t spend any money. I didn’t even walk into your business. But, I get the credit because I checked in and now, if you gave discounts to Foursquare players, you’d give me discounts for not even being loyal, but for walking by your store and saying I went inside.

Best yet - there is a website called PleaseRobMe.com that is making a point not only about Foursquare, but about social media as a whole. Are we saying too much? Giving out too much information freely? On pleaserobme.com, you can see people from all over that are checking in on Foursquare. Guess what, when you tell me that you’re checking in at the Starbucks downtown, guess where I know you aren’t… HOME. It’s basically advertising that you are not home and that your stuff is free for the taking. Again, the website isn’t out to advocate robbing people’s homes. It’s out to prove a point that it is POSSIBLE to know this kind of information very easily. All you would need is the person’s full name and a few internet searches could tell you their home address, where they work and - thanks to Foursquare - where they are and how far away from home they may be at that time.

Life isn’t a game people. Foursquare used to be a game. But it was played by kids with a rubber ball. Let’s keep it to that.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 11:50 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.