I know it has been a topic for quite some time, and it just keeps coming up, but social check-ins still seem to be all the rage. I will be the absolute first to admit that for years I’ve thought “Why does anyone need to know where I am?” I am a fairly private person and a fairly cautious person at times, so I just couldn’t see why a service like FourSquare would be useful.
I will also be the first to say, “don’t knock it till you try it.” As a hyper-rational super nerd I feel it is my duty to experience the ‘full effect’ of every social phenomenon—okay, maybe not every social phenomenon, but for this blog’s sake just go with it—I’ve been conducting a little experiment for the past month with social check-ins to see what weight they actually hold and go figure, they’re actually more than just a silly game you play with your ‘friends’.
Prime example: Last week my brother and I were at Food Truck Friday in St. Louis. I checked in around 6:35pm, while waiting for some Seoul Taco, and within 5 minutes my phone rang. It was my one of my friends and without saying “hello” he says, “You’re at Food Truck Friday. Where? We’re on our way.” Perhaps it was my deeply buried millennial instinct but I didn’t question why or how he knew where I was, I simply said, “Seoul Taco, I’ll save you a spot in line.”
When he finally arrived I asked him how he knew where I was, to which he replied FourSquare. The four of us had an excellent impromptu evening of silliness. Upon reflection it astounds me how easily people find each other these days; within minutes a friend, who happened to be in the same place, met up with me. For all my paranoia, all my worry, all my contempt for geo-tagging I certainly can’t stop checking in now.
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