… or so says Time Magazine in this puzzling piece profiling the “50 Worst Inventions.”
We’ll start this post by saying that there’s nothing wrong with being Old Media. Some of our best friends are Old Media. Old Media is just like the awesome kinds of media, except, well older (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
But WTF? A 15 month year old service that is just now hitting its growth inflection point is a “bright idea that just didn’t work out?”
We mock what we don’t understand. And at this point, Old Media, as represented by Time Magazine, doesn’t seem to understand that the element of location is changing everything.
Here are couple of gems from the piece:
“…When broadcasting your every thought via Facebook and Twitter isn’t enough, you have FourSquare, the next generation of creepy social networking…”
“…Just another tool tapping into a generation of narcissism…”
Or maybe Time Magazine wanted to sponsor a badge, and Foursquare didn’t get back to them.
But I don’t think it’s any of these things. I think it’s exactly what it seems – a company struggling with the new media rules lashing out at one that’s embracing them.
My bet is that we’ll see a feature story in Time Magazine about how Foursquare is changing society within 18 months.
I don’t know, it seems pretty fucking stupid to post where you are in real time on a regular basis. But if someone could tie in a retarded automated mashup of my credit card purchases with a real time geo location system … now that might have some legs, it would reduce the cost of entry for the burglary industry at minimum.
Of course I should just tweet this rather than post a comment:
prty fucking stupid 2 post wre ur in real time. Make retard auto post of c.c buys & geo might’ve some legs, cost of entry 4 burglary > min.
Square, Blippy & Mint?
“I think it’s exactly what it seems – a company struggling with the new media rules lashing out at one that’s embracing them.”
Wow, I wish i were young enough to know everything. Those were the days. Now get off of my lawn. No I don’t have geo-coordinates for it.
Haha, I wish it was an age thing. Shocking that the geolocation blog on The Next Web would defend Foursquare :)
I think they’re exactly right. Foursquare is working out for now, but I think it’s just a fad that will die out pretty soon. Give it a while. The more news stories that come out about women being raped in the park by ex-boyfriends because they posted their location, or about homes being broken into because of posting location, the more people will realize that what they’re doing is completely stupid.
Why would you want people to know where you are all the time? And do you think those people really give a shit to know that? If you happen to go on vacation and you’re on top of Mt Everest, sure let your friends know about it, but if you just went to McDonald’s, who cares?
Tha’s the problem, actually. No members of the stalkerati have embraced the evilness of this technology yet. And if they have, it hasn’t made National news, and my fear is that it will be too entrenched by the time it’s too late to do anything about it.
who cares? maybe your nearby friends on foursquare.
i like to see where my friends went last night, and what thought about that place; maybe neyt time i’ll visit it. a new way to find new and interesting places, recommended by you friends.
you don’t have to tweet or post your location, you can just let your foursquare friends know it, so it’s not public. and don’t forget it’s a social game where you can earn points and badges too. for what? for fun. you know, it’s a game :)
Here’s an idea. Actually call your friends, or even text them, or better yet, meet up with them and have a real conversation with them to find out how they’re doing, where they’ve been, what they thought about the place, etc.
That failing, there are plenty of review sites online that don’t require you to give away the fact that no one’s home. 2 dollars off my next order for being the ‘mayor’ wouldn’t mean much if my house got robbed.
Or maybe you could call someone’s house number and check if someone picks it up. No call, noone at home! Yay!
Oh wait, you could actually peek in someones home if the lights are on. Better yet, ring the doorbell as a salesman!
Djeez. There are a million ways to know if someone’s home. Burglars don’t need foursquare to know you are out or not. If they know you have something of worth in your house, they’ll just wait until you go to work.
so you send text msg every night to _all_ of your friends: “you are on my contact list as my friend! wherever you are, do you want to meet somewhere?” …
“meet up with them and have a real conversation with them to find out how they’re doing”
and that’s what foursquare is for: you look at it and you can see that one of your friends just checked in in a nearby pub (or something), that was recommended by your other friends too. so let’s go there.
or maybe not, because one of a review site said it’s not so good?… call me old fashioned, but i’d rather trust my friends opinion ;)
and this house robbery thing comes up every time since online status updates, but never heard a real story. i think robbers have better to do than rob random people’s house.
Oh come on, as if it isn’t just a bunch of geek losers trying to be bl33ding edge posers.
Who needs some check in tool to meet up with random people you know sort of but don’t really want to talk to really? Is this just poor people’s cocaine?
I think you raise a good point about the pending backlash when there is a publicized stalker case involving geo.
But I’m not buying the “people will your house” bit. Here’s a tip for any would be robber – I leave my home and go to work every day.
Life’s a game. Play the game. Win valuable prizes!!! Great on paper, however, embracing this type of tech is going to take a long time, and there are still those of us that are not willing to give up our right to privacy in this manner.
“…My bet is that we’ll see a feature story in Time Magazine about how Foursquare is changing society within 18 months…”
You’d lose that bet, because Time Magazine won’t exist in 18 months.
Foursquare = another me too service by a bunch of retards and commodity techies with no vertical skills and pipe dreams to hit it rich selling porkie pie badges online – another dormitory story waiting in the queue for the deadpool – three cheers to Time Magazine for bringing up the issue-old is gold
I can imagine the young’un love foursquare. Me a 30 something with 2 kids, I couldn’t give a flying f where you are, or what restaurants are good. My only concern is if they are kid friendly. Red Robin here I come, maybe I can be the mayor there. Until I get tangible benefits for location check-in, (offering me Gymboree Kids coupon on the spot would help), I am skeptical.
This is just the beginning…
Imagine the possibilities once the major cities are mapped.
It’s like gps right..letting ppl know where you are? who cares? ı believe twitter ll be enough for a while.
I’ll take that bet. I don’t think Time magazine will be around in eighteen months :)
The “Normals”? Really? Wow, if that isn’t a bunch of hubris.
Foursquare, in and of itself, is fine. But from what I’ve seen, it’s hitting a lot of backlash, and deservedly so, because people who use foursquare keep pushing it onto their Twitter, and if someone’s friends with you on Twitter but not foursquare, it’s probably because they don’t care to get updates every time you change location.
I didn’t mean Normals as an insult. Some of my best friends are Normal.
Normalman!!!