It's not that i'm a naysayer or a doubter. I believe that communicating with people is a powerful tool. It's just that I am a cynic and a skeptic. When someone says, "You have to try this new way of talking to people by only using 140 characters! It will change your life forever!", I am skeptical.
Because people I respect are telling me this, I have developed a social networking attack plan. When enough of my peers are urging me to try some new social network, I will sign up and resolve to give it at least 2 weeks of regular usage. In the case of Twitter, I found a lot of value. After a couple weeks, I made new contacts. I discovered people with my interests, and i found a way to get information from people who i was interested in.
It was with that strategy that i approached Foursquare. After a couple weeks my feelings were as follows:
- Foursquare is painful to use. The gps accuracy was spotty, it seemed slow.
- It forces me through needless clicks. why do i have to click check in, then check in again?
- It's too chaotic. The same place may be entered more than once.
- People seemed to resent foursquare messages on twitter so i didn't connect it. It didn't feel social.
- When i did have fun with it (adding a bathroom in our building and competing for mayor of it) people would delete the place.
After my 2 weeks, I felt secure in declaring Foursquare stupid. Then, something happened. I checked in at a local bar and found out i could get a free beer for my first checkin. Suddenly Foursquare looked different. Regardless of accuracy or if the system could or could not be gamed, I could get a free beer. Maybe I'm not going to make Foursquare friends or feel like i'm part of a community, but a free beer is a pretty tangible benefit.
I decided to stick with it. I gained a couple mayorships. I aquired some coveted badges. I earned my swarm badge naturally. I didn't have to attend some geeky nerd party where everyone agreed to check-in for the expressed purpose of getting a swarm badge (ok, I got the swarm badge at the Game Developers Conference. It's probably the ultimate nerd party). Yet I still felt like Foursquare was a pointless exercise.
After months, I hadn't gotten any more free beer, and I still didn't feel like Foursquare was doing anything for me. Facebook places came into existence and has, for me at least, seemed faster, more accurate, more social, and more streamlined than Foursquare. I can't even believe that I am praising a facebook feature as more streamlined than something else, but there you have it. I view that as even more evidence that Foursquare just isn't cutting it for me.
My wife called to alert me to some suspicious charges on one of our cards. We have experienced credit card theft in the past. It's hard to describe the agonizing sinking feeling you get when you see your money diverted for mysterious and nefarious purposes. The charge in question was for $38.70 at Popeye's. I don't even like Popeye's. It seems like it might be hard to buy $40 of food at Popeye's. The thought that some glutton was running around clogging their arteries on our dime was even more sickening.
We all know that it's important to keep good financial records. In fact, because of our credit card theft experiences in the past we REALLY feel it's important to keep reciepts and records of all our transactions. HA! That lasted a couple months before we realized that it's just not practical. If you can keep all that information handy, good for you. I can't. My wife can't either and she's WAY more organized than I am.
At this point, we are pretty certain that we didn't spend $40 at Popeye's, but there is a tiny nagging doubt in the back of my head. Before we call the credit card company and dispute the charges and cancel our cards, I want to quell that doubt. I think that if I knew what I was doing around the day the charge was placed, maybe it will jog my memory and I'll recall something that will prove I couldn't possibly have been to Popeye's, and i will feel confident in disputing the charge.
It occurred to me to check Foursquare. I bring it up on my iPhone. I start scrolling down the list and lo and behold! I checked in at Popeye's!
For a second, I imagine an incredibly sophisticated criminal who can steal my credit card, and check me in on Foursquare. This is the first thing that pops into my head. It's possible my friends are right when they say I think like a criminal. However I see that Popeye's is NOT Popeye's famous fried chicken, but a nautically themed restaurant on the picturesque shores of Lake Geneva, WI. I recall that my wife and I DID enjoy a nice, but pricey $40 lunch there.Foursquare actually provided a beneficial service to me. It wasn't social, but it was useful. Facebook, while easier to check in on, doesn't provide a nice list of check-ins. at least the Facebook iphone app doesn't provide that. And Facebook is notoriously abysmal at providing historical data. Foursquare had a nice list. Thankfully it looks like the two are integrating and maybe in the future I can enjoy the convenience of the Facebook checkin with the organized reporting of the Foursquare history list. All that and I can feel like pulling out my iPhone at dinner is just being responsible with my financial records!
Foursquare, you've proven yourself to me once again. I'll continue to use you (for now).
If you work on a crime show or movie and would like to hire me as a consultant about how criminals could mask their tracks through Foursquare, I think I have some good ideas.
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