For the past week or so, I've been trying to get into
foursquare. It's a service sort of like Twitter that is based around checking in at different places (e.g. restaurants, bars, parks, etc.) and earning points and rankings for each one. You can also leave tips for other people ("If the special at Fritto Misto is the short rib raviolis, you
have to try it!), see who's nearby and make friends but really, it's all about points and rankings. It's like competitive Twitter: all the bragging about where you've been but with none of the communication or cool links that just get in the way.
As a person in my line of work, I feel that it's important to try the the "hot, new fads" as they roll out. It's not that I felt any inherent need to let people know that I just checked in to Wpromote, it's just that I thought I'd look in to all the fuss about foursquare.
Thus far, my experience with foursquare has not been what I would call a success. What foursquare has taught me in the past week is that I spend a lot of time at work and home and little time elsewhere. The time that I do spend not working or homing is generally taken up by forgetting to check in on foursquare. I failed to check in at Medieval Times on Friday, I forgot to check in at Barnacles after football on Sunday and I couldn't be bothered to check in while I was at the driving range on Tuesday.
I think I've narrowed down the problem: it's either my heart or my mind: either my heart just really isn't into it or my mind is elsewhere when I should be checking in. You know, somewhere like too in the moment to pull out my phone and check in.
So, does that mean that foursquare is a bad idea? Not at all. I can totally understand why people get competitive about this sort of thing. After all, I may not be the President and CEO of Wpromote (that honor belongs to my good friend
Michael Mothner) but I
am the
Mayor of Wpromote! So, if we ever have a big disagreement about company policy, does that mean that I outrank him? We'll have to wait and see. Maybe I'll snatch his parking spot and see how it all shakes out.
Still, competition alone hasn't been enough to get me jazzed on foursquare and I think I've only got about a month of sporadic in-checking left in me. Now that foursquare has added the ability to become a
Barista at Starbucks, I can't see myself stomaching supporting this sort of behavior for much longer. Don't get me wrong, I respect the cross-promotional aspects of the move, I just hate that Starbucks' nomenclature is beginning to cross over into real life. If I ever have to use the word "tall" to describe anything other than buildings, mountain, basketball players or difficult "orders" I think I'm going to move to Scotland where that sort of nonsense doesn't fly. "Can I get a
tall Macallan 12, two Splendas and a splash of non-dairy creamer?" Get ready to know what a caber feels like.
But I digress... The point is that after a week of using it, I don't think that foursquare is for me. It is unique, though, and I would recommend that anyone who is the kind of person who enjoys Twitter, updating their Facebook profile with consistency or meeting new people with similar interests give it a whirl for at least a week. Just don't try and take my mayorship of Wpromote; I'll have you in the stocks in the middle of town square before you can tweet about it!
