Here starts a story about the geo-location tool Foursquare.  I was a casual Foursquare user for months and found it fun; the special offers at businesses wasn’t a bad deal either.  It made it worth my while to use the tool though I didn’t have any personal friends of mine using the mobile tool.  I finally recruited a few friends to jump on board and the fun began.  Racing for points, vying for mayorship of our most renowned academic buildings.  Finally my two friends, Mikey and Josh, both used it extensively to track their movements just a few days ago, boy was I in for a surprise.

I checked into Harvey Hall for my 9 a.m. statistical anaylsis course, after 5 minutes of sitting down I get an alert notifying me Mikey just checked into Harvey Hall as well.  “Oh, cool” I thought to myself, maybe I’ll run into him.  I thought nothing of it and left at 10 p.m. to get some lunch at our student center on-campus. 

I checked into the student center at 10:08 a.m. to sit down for lunch, shortly thereafter Mikey checked in as well.  My eyes peeled the room looking for Mikey.  However, the student center is a big place so not seeing him eating wasn’t a surprise.  I ate my quesadilla and kept an eye out for Mikey on my way out around 11 a.m.

I returned to my dorm and awaited for my 2:30 p.m. sociological principles course in Harvey Hall.  I made my way up the hill to Harvey Hall, I checked in for the second time today and almost instantanelousy, Mikey checked in as well.  “Whoa, this is getting creepy!  Is Mikey stalking me?”  I chuckled and went to my class, again I didn’t see Mikey in the building as it is very large with my points of exit and entry. 

I wen’t to Price Commons, the main eatery/cafeteria for on-campus students as I do every day at 4:15 p.m.  Heading to the “Commons” is a habit I do every weekday and I have never seen Mikey there before, until this day. I sat down with friends to eat my supper and in walks Mikey no less than 2 minutes later.  “Okay, now I’m really getting freaked out” I said.  How could this be happening?  Is a friend playing a joke or is this a effect of using Foursqaure with my social network of friends.  Don’t jump the gun, the freakiest situation hasn’t happened yet!

Later in the evening my significant other and I decided to have a very late dinner at the local Applebee’s (shameless plug here) for half-off appetizers.  The local Applebee’s closes at 11 p.m. and we arrived at 10:30 p.m on a Tuesday night.  There were no cars in the parking lot except for the four cars of those who were working.  “Awesome, we will get our food really fast!”  We were about to be seated when I look on the window and who do I see?  Josh and Mikey among other friends are walking in 2 minutes behind us, my phones buzzes as they both check-in at Applebee’s with me.  My mind was bugging out over how this could be happening.   Tuesday night, late, miles from our campus and here they are, again! Ahhhhhhhhh!

So what should I make of all this?  Mikey and Josh were not following me on purpose, who has time for that?  They weren’t checking in from alternate locations just to freak me out as I verified them being at most of the places they said they were.  I think this lends to just how small our ‘world’ is.  We have all heard that phrase, “Small world we live in.”  I believe it to be true.  Most of us go through our day in our own little worlds and don’t realize how close we are to other in our own networks.  Foursquare amplifies these connections and it’s very interesting to see just how close you are to your network at all times of the day.  You may be right around the corner from your best friend or acquaintance and not even know it.

Tools like Foursqaure show just how close we all are.  Is my situation skewed a little? Yes, most of these happenings took place on a 4-year univeristy campus.  Could you stalk an avid Foursqaure user?  Absolutley.  However my generation feels much more comfortable with transperancy than previous generations.  Will I stop using it due to this odd day? Absolutley not. 

Foursquare is a great tool that gets its users out to explore their local communities in fun way.  Check out Foursqaure and learn more here.