SEO Blog > Why social media geo-location technology isn’t as good as it seems

Why social media geo-location technology isn’t as good as it seems

Posted • April 2, 2010 • Comments Off

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This is a guest post by social media strategist Taylor Ellwood

There’s a lot of hype about Four Square and the geo location technology it offers. So much so that Twitter and Facebook, and other social media services are starting to integrate geo location technology into their interfaces. Geo location technology basically shows the exact location you are sending a status update from, and can sometimes involve telling people where you are. A lot of people are really into using this technology, especially because Four Square has made it into a game, where you can get virtual awards for showing up a place and telling people you are there. This allows you to compete with other people on Four Square.

geo location Why social media geo location technology isnt as good as it seems

However, in their rush to win virtual awards, what Four Square users seem to have forgotten or not thought through are the potential consequences for posting their exact location to other people. The danger in this technology is that people can use knowing your exact location against you. For example, one social media expert I know told me how she’d posted her latest location at a restaurant. While getting ready to eat, she was called by two men who told her that thanks to Four Square they knew exactly where she was. They told her they were breaking into her home to steal everything she had. Needless to say getting such a call understandably frightened her. She got a friend to escort her home, where she found out her place had not been broken into. She had just been pranked. But that experience opened her eyes and she stopped using Four Square.

In truth, she was lucky she only got pranked, but the reality is that Four Square’s geo location can be used for much worse. After all, she really could have been robbed. And if someone wanted to stalk her or rape her, or do something worse, it wouldn’t be very hard to use Four Square’s geo location technology to keep track of where she was and then make a move. And in the end, Four Square won’t recompense her for stolen goods or anything else for that matter.

The other problem however, is that there isn’t a very clear reason as to why geo location technology is actually useful. What function or purpose does it serve to announce to everyone exactly where you are? Sure you can tell friends who then might meet up with you, but you can also use the phone, email, text, or a direct message to do the same.

foursquare Why social media geo location technology isnt as good as it seems

Four Square’s geo location technology ultimately presents less benefit than it provides. Just because people can use it, doesn’t mean they should use it. Without a clear benefit, beyond virtual awards, Four Square and other such similar services provide more opportunities for people to be stalked, robbed, or otherwise harmed. Of course, it’s not solely the technology’s fault. The lack of common sense displayed by people who use this technology without considering the consequences also is a problem. That people haven’t clearly thought out what could occur is evident when they use this technology indiscriminately and post it to all their social networking sites. in the end, no virtual award is worth the risks that this technology increases. While it’s true that any person could be robbed, stalked, etc., it’s also true that the less you do to open yourself up to it, the less chance it is that it will occur.

In the age of social media, while it is easier for us to tell each other where we are, it’s more important than ever to employ common sense and carefully consider what we tell people and what technology we use to tell people. While I do tell people what I’m doing, I keep the location information and time vague in my social media updates. I focus on informing people more about what I’m doing, as opposed to where I’m doing it.

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