You're in a mall, walking from store to store. You pull our your smartphone and faithfully checkin to each store, even though you're just browsing.
After ten minutes, Foursquare tells you that you have no life and are visiting too many places. What do you do? Awkwardly stick around in a store until you can checkin? Move on but keep trying to checkin so you can still get the points? Checkin the next day?
What if you're now too far away from the place where you forgot to checkin?
But this begs the question, why even checkin on Foursquare? What benefit does it have? (Sidenote: yes, this is a correct usage of the commonly misused phrase, “begs the question.”)
What are the benefits of Foursquare?
Foursquare is a social network that allows people to share their location, leave tips and photos, find interesting places, and occasionally get local deals. Do we really use it for these things?
Yes, some of the tips are cool, like seeing what menu items someone likes at a restaurant. Some tips are pointless, like, “avoid stupid cars parked in the streets” (but I guess the smart cars shouldn't be avoided?).
When was the last time you got a good deal with Foursquare? Most places I visit offer only an American Express deal (I don't have an AmEx credit card). I only remember a single deal in the last year, which was $4 of free bananas with a Foursquare checkin.
Beyond this rare perk, most people use Foursquare to tell us where they are. But do we really care? Some sites like Please Rob Me illustrate a (slightly exaggerated) danger of this oversharing.
Essentially, Foursquare is a game
Why do we play this location-based game? Just for the points and cool badges? It's a game that can't be won.
Social games are fun, yes. But I like a game that actually takes skill to play—or even involves playing! Foursquare involves just checking in and getting points. Whoop-dee-doo.
Leaving Foursquare?
So I don't see much value in Foursquare for myself, but maybe you can convince me otherwise. I won't completely delete my account and leave Foursquare, but I'll probably stop compulsively checking in unless I truly want people to know where I am, which would only be when I think people actually care.
What about you? Do you use Foursquare, Yelp, SCVNGR, Whrrl, or any other location-based apps? If so, do you do anything with them beyond checking in?
Totally agree. I played with it for a few weeks. Got some badges and mayorships, but it was just a game. A very basic game at that. I removed it from my phone and never looked back. If I want to let people know where I’m at then I’ll post it in Facebook.
And if I want to play a game, I want it to be a real game! Not like one of those “let’s see who can do their chores the fastest” kind of games.
I only check in to places to then share that I am there, for some significant reason. I’m not in a competition, it doesn’t necessarily give me deals or discounts, and it’s time consuming to think about and play.
That said, I do use it to see what other people have given in terms of reviews or items on menus at locations, or to see what is around me when I am not in familiar territory. I probably should just use Instagram and yelp, or some apps that give me those functions. However, doing that would eliminate the possibility for me to see my friends comments or recommendations at places we both frequent.
“Significant reason.” Exactly! And I’m realizing that I don’t have a significant reason, and it was becoming “stressful” to “play.”
My wife and I used foursquare a lot when we were in Hawaii last summer. I would check into the restaurants to see if they had any deals and read the user reviews. The one place we stopped said that the white chocolate macadamia nut pancakes were to die for so that’s what I ordered. And you know what? They were to die for 🙂
That’s cool! But I feel like that’s the exception. As a poor freelancer, my wife and I don’t get to eat out much, certainly not a place where other reviews matter much. 😉
Excellent point. I think that going out less frequently would make the reviews even more helpful. You want to make sure you get something many others recommend.
I’ve been “playing the game” for quite a while now. I like earning the badges and stuff but, yes, it probably is taking up to much of my thought process when I go some place.
When I want to share that I’m somewhere with friends I actually use Facebook’s check-in feature because many of my “real life” friends are on Facebook. It’s actually more interactive that way.
More food for thought…I wonder when Facebook will buy Foursquare.
The badges were fun, but starting to get stressful. Kind of like those addictive games that “require” you to play them or else you lose something.
Facebook bought Gowalla, so I don’t see them trying to buy Foursquare, unless they’re gobbling up their competition.