Because they are lame.
End of story…
… I suppose I should clarify my position better, right?
Honestly, besides the obvious security issues that exist the truth is this: I simply do not have time, interest, or motivation to update the world with where I am.
In addition, and this is the much larger reason, is that I simply don’t need another reason to be on my iPhone. I need much more distance between the online world at times for my own personal health.
This shouldn’t stop you from using it though…! Have fun that it – I guess I won’t be the “Mayor” of anywhere.
Sad…
Not.
John Saddington
I am the CEO of 8BIT and a Full Time Entrepreneur/a>. I like what I do.
Point taken, and while I tend to agree with you I’m inherently biased as I don’t have a cell phone at the moment. The question though would seem to be, has anybody come up with a ministry use case for Gowalla and Foursquare with an intentional focus?
John,
I commend you for your personal choice to plug in less. I do think these are valuable tools for building a sense of commuity. To me they are just an extension of Twitter.
I also agree with the potential safety hazards and hope people who use them think carefully before posting their location.
I’m still undecided. Definitely don’t see it as a security issue because whether we’re posting our exact location or not, many of us use Twitter to tell everyone what we’re up to anyway. The basic fact is if someone wanted to find out times that I’m not at home they don’t need location-based tracking to do that. Right now I only use FS as a replacement to those times where I want to send out a tweet telling people what I’m at an actual location. There aren’t nearly enough people in my small town using it to make the badges/social aspect of it useful.
What value is there in these services when it’s been shown that using simple scripting you can check in to anywhere you want from the comfort of your own desktop?
i just got a special badge for being the mayor of 10 places on Foursquare…i use it a lot.
Jim, you’re the man!
Thank You! Just had the conversation with my wife (for the 1,000+ time) about how i will not check my phone all the time…. ugghh… i need to separate myself from it. And its not even an iphone… DROID 🙂
I decided long ago to be 100% in agreement. I get invites all the time, not just to those two, but to plenty of others such as Dopplr. In fact, this extends to plenty of other non-location-based networks as well. You just can’t do it all. It either fits with your priorities or it doesn’t. For me, it doesn’t.
By the way. I’m in my office.
I’m with you on this one John.
And I’m especially with you about encouraging folks to disconnect from their online and mobile personnas. It is likely a generational thing and as a lot of youth age they will naturally start to disconnect more … or worse, they will disappear into it. I see this with my 20yr old and do my best to encourage him to disconnect more – one example is a total ban on devices at the family dinner table and that includes visitors 😉
Ok, so I think this is my all time favorite post from you. Ever! It is just too funny. I feel the same way. “Because they are lame…end of story.” Thank you.
I’m still hesitant, but the idea of being the mayor of a place and getting badges and things tempts me so much. It’s sorta like having a high post count on message boards…such a silly “honor” but so tempting. I’m saying no for now, though.
Even though I’m in the same boat as you John,
I’d still like to hear a compelling argument by someone who uses it religiously, kinda a point and counter point. Got anyone that could write a pro-gowalla/foursqure post? Maybe one of the Digerati guys, as they are always reminding me of the really good restaurants and coffee shops I’m missing out on in OKC…
For me, it boils down to a security issue, but in some cases, there’s some vanity involved.
I’m not calling everyone that uses GoWalla or Foursquare vain, but we’ve all seen the progression with new services that people share their entire life online. I think those will eventually fade to a smaller number and something useful could come of it (over time).
Like you, I just don’t have the time. I guess there’s also a productivity issue for me. If I’m waiting in line some where I’d rather check/reply to emails for work than announce where I’m at.