Social media platforms are a double edged sword. As soon as you see the value in one, it seems that someone finds a way to pollute the hell out of it.
Take Facebook for example. At its core, great networking tool to stay connected to people you know and keep in touch. Along the way, someone thought it would be a good idea to introduce applications and games. Well gee, thanks. Those who do not want to partake in them are subject to hundreds of status updates daily about Mafia War variants, quizzes, horoscopes, various useless game updates and the worst offender of all, Farmville. It took me a long time to hide all those applications updates, and to this day there still isn’t an option that lets you hide status updates that are not core Facebook features. There really should be.
The reasons above prompted my exodus from Facebook. You can only see/block so many useless Farmville/quiz updates before it drives you nuts. So I moved to Twitter.
Whoa, Twitter is awesome! It’s content is pure! I was, and still am, addicted to the flow of information that comes across my list every 10 minutes. I can disseminate information faster than I can by going to Digg etc networks, where the content there isn’t so guaranteed to be targeted to my interests. You can even acquire breaking news faster than the major networks can get it. Twitter has the Awesome!
Then came Foursquare and Gowalla.
Thanks a lot.
The once pure lifestream of Twitter is now being polluted by useless ‘me me me’ information of Foursquare/Gowalla services. I don’t get it. Why would someone think that other people care if they are at the gas station, or Walmart, or their office? In my opinion, it is such dead-end information that is useful to nobody, in contrast of passing along information like news or something interesting to build conversations on.
To me, Foursquare/Gowalla is the equivalent of meeting someone out, say, at a bar, and then the next day that person shows up at your house and says ‘I was just at the store. Thought you’d like to know.’ and drives off. Strange, you think. Then a few minutes later, they come back, and tell you they were just at the post office, and they were there twice today. Weird!
There’s a certain narcissistic aspect to these services that makes me despise them. Why should anyone be interested in -where- someone else is? The whole point of Twitter was people say short interesting things to spark conversation (anyone have a Wii?), report on whats going on around them (Muse is onstage now at Coachella!), or pass along news (Airplane crashes into the Hudson!! *pics). That style of content engages and helps keep people rolling on the service.
Which one of these is more useful:
‘Hey, check out this article on Windows 7 tweaks on ArsTechnica (link)’
or
‘I’m at Grotto’s Grand Slam! http://4sq.com/394832/annoying’
People abhor stalkers, but this is reverse stalking. I think the technology is so new that the super scary side of it is the abuse that can happen. For instance, the more you use Foursquare, the more people know you aren’t home. Crafty criminals will be casing Twitter instead of casing neighborhoods looking for a good target. Clingy/disturbed exes will know where you are at all times bringing a new sense to the word ’stalk’ (and I’ve seen this demonstrated). Establishments that encourage the use of Foursquare in exchange for discounts may bring a new meaning to the term ‘regular’, in the obsessive sense.
The thing that annoys me the most about this is there is no way to hide this on Twitter, no way to filter it out. It needs it, it really really does. Otherwise, I will have to find a new social niche that is as pure as Twitter used to be.
