Due to Four Square's popularity, now Twitter and Facebook are also getting involved in the geo location game. On Twitter, you can now choose to tell people where you are when you make a Tweet, and Facebook is actively working on integrating the technology into their platform. As beneficial as this may appear to people, I would suggest that the continued advent of this technology isn't that good.
For one thing, when I see in my tweet stream where you are, it strikes me as fairly self-obsessed. Why do I need to know where you are or what your are doing? Second, it seems to be a leave of common sense. As I've mentioned in other blogs, telling people where you are at that precise moment is an excellent way to invite the potential for harm in your life. Sure, you are also telling your friends where you are, but you can do that by calling them, emailing them, or sending a direct message to them.
Integrating the ability to tell people your exact geo location into social media might be useful if you are lost, but we really need to question just how beneficial these applications are. What is it they exactly offer that we need? I would argue they don't offer anything we need.
I imagine to many users of this tech, that it sounds rather amusing to critique this tech. But I think if we just accept technology without asking the critical questions of:
"Is this needed?"
"How will it significantly improve my life?"
"What are the potential consequences of using this?"
we end up ultimately cluttering our lives with miscellaneous details, while allowing others to use those details against us.
What do you think? How valuable is geo location to you? What purpose does it serve, if any?
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