Foursquare is Awesome (and Ridiculous)

In addition to talking too much about the usefulness of social media, I occasionally enjoy making fun of it (very necessary so we don't take ourselves too seriously). That's why I appreciated The Onion's gibe at how the media covers social media, such as Foursquare -- a service that has already conquered me. I have become the mayor of the park across the street, my gym, my apartment (well, it's a daily battle) and this hotel in Wisconsin I recently visited.

For those of you who still don't know (and who seem to make up half the people I talk to, believe it or not), Foursquare is a social networking site to tell your friends where you are and compete for badges and mayorships based on where you go. I enjoy it mostly to see what my close friends are doing and also for the childlike interest in tracking the mediocrity of life as if it's a big game. "I'm at work, I'm at the gym, I'm at the diner, I'm at the bar, I'm at my apartment ... Oh I just unlocked a badge for going so many places!"

It's true, I rolled my eyes at the idea of a new social networking site when I first heard about it. Even though I converted and successfully converted others, many of my friends remain unconvinced, despite the fact that many of them exist in Foursquare's target bubble of smartphone-toting young professionals. I predict that they'll come around, or that the whole Foursquare thing will fizzle and die -- one of the two.

Even a Kool-Aid drinker like me can admit that it's humorous to watch traditional media get excited about social media and write features about it constantly (e.g., a New York Times feature about Foursquare). As America's finest fake news source puts it:

While millions of young, tech-savvy professionals already use services like Facebook and Twitter to keep in constant touch with friends, a new social networking platform called Foursquare has recently taken the oh, fucking hell, can't some other desperate news outlet cover this crap instead?

Thanks, Onion, for always keeping it real.

Photo provided by Foursquare