This article, Tech Edge: Hollow Point | Fast Company, offers a view on the latest, greatest–stop me if you’ve heard this before–social media phenomenon around “checking in” through Foursquare.
I have to agree with this article that “checking in can be fun, useful, and even indispensable, but only in certain contexts”.
However, I’m not sure checking in as fun as being part of where you are, instead of your face buried into your smart phone, why not look up, look around, and engage in the other people who are not only geo-co-located, but may not be running for Mayor of the North Pole or trying to unlock a “foodie” badge or any of the other Foursquare badges.
Also of interest: From Addiction to Apathy: The Five Stages of Foursquare Use:
Stage One: Curiosity
Stage Two: Addiction
Stage Three: Socialization
Stage Four: Greed
Stage Five: Apathy
Sounds like a political race.
No doubt Foursquare and geolocation is drawing a lot of commercial activity, but I’m not sure if it is fad, a blip, or business, marketers, and the old-world media making damn sure not to miss a trend as both try to co-opt social media and marketing 2.0 to earn money.
And here comes the latest news as of May 28th: Foursquare nearing 1 million checkins a day.
Here’s to sanity; it’s making a comeback…
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