Category: Let's talk
Hey all,
I just got twitter recently and I noticed that some people like to tweat their exact locations rather frequently. I know what store they're at, or which apartment complex they live in, etc. While there's nothing wrong with this, I'm wondering why people do it? I'd understand if you were going to an awesome concert or a sports game, but why would you want everyone to know you're at Wal Mart? Or that you've just gotten home? I've seen people do this on facebook as well with check-ins, and I simply don't understand. Generally, when I tweat something, it's either to inform, share something interesting, or make people laugh. My location--especially if I'm just hanging out at Wal Mart--doesn't tell very many people anything interesting, and seems kind of pointless. I'm curious as to the reasons behind this kind of sharing. Thoughts?
Well, it depends. foursquare can unlock specials for checking in at places, and for some it's a way to show people the places they go, be it Walmart or whatever.
I wish I knew. I only check in at concert halls. But I've seen people check in at home, at the ant's house, really, very uninteresting comun places. And some of these people add others they don't know, so... It doesn't make scence to me at least.
Call me paranoid, but it'd make it really easy for people to track you.
Well, it is just make it easier. The moment you turn your mobile device on, you are pretty much trackable. Regardless of either you chec in on some social media or not, or, if you have your location service turn on or off.
Lol I'm not afraid, if someone wants to do something to me they'll find me one way or another. But as far as checking in at your own house I don't really see the point either.
It is just something to do. Let your friends/followers know what you are doing. You share other stuff, so location is just sharing too.
I think it has to do with the growing narsicism epidemic in today's society. Everyone feels the need to post every move they make, as if their friend, or just an acquaintence, really gives a flying leap if they ate cheeri ohs for breakfast and then drank some lipton iced tea. As if your facebook/twitter/any-other-social-network friend really wants to know that you just got home from buying Raisin Bran and a six pack of men's boxers at Wal Mart--because they were on sale of course. It's a wonder people dont' post when they go to the bathroom, and then report on what color their excrement was!!! But watch, I bet someone, somewhere out there has or will do that soon.
Get what I mean? I have a facebook and twitter, but I would hate to bother my followers with inane, trivial little things. I find it unnatural to catalog my entire existance, a play by play of my day if you will, in cyberspace. I've always found it to be self-important and petty. How sad that you have no life, because all you really do is check your email, for instance, and then post a status about checking your email on your social networking page?
There are wars being faught out there. Hunger being endured. Babies being born and people dying off every second of the day. Someone somewhere in the world is leading a marginally more exciting, relevant, crucial or otherwise sad existance than those who feel the need to post their every move. So how dare so many people feel the need to spam the internet with their mundane happenings? lol
As for paranoia, Meglet, there's more to be said about the idea of people involuntarily letting others know where they are and where they aren't.
I've heard multiple news stories and other social media-related discussion pannels talk about how people's posts about vacations, about their exact locations, etc. attract the attention of potential robbers and burglers.
There are computer-savvy criminals stalking public twitter and facebook profiles--even private ones if they know how to hack into them--to pounce on the chance that a person might not be home.
Stalkers use social media to make their task easier when tormenting and spying on their preys.
I'm not paranoid, and I'm not making any of this up. These are very real threats--and yet,countless individuals are too enamoured with themselves, too self-important to realize what kind of danger they might be putting themselves into inadvertently.
How sad.
I only post a check-in, or my location, when I feel it has something interesting behind it. I check into Foursquare for various things all the time, but I rarely post the check-in to social networking. Same with Tweets. I'll share my location when I'm on a trip somewhere, to let friends know what stage of it I'm at, but I don't do this all the time. I don't mind people knowing where I am when I'm out, but I wouldn't post my location from home.
I don't get why people feel the need to share such things on any social networking site, honestly.
call me cynical, but I think it's pointless, and don't give a rat's ass where people are checking into, nor do I care to see such self centeredness, when they're doing various check ins all the time, just so they can get useless points on forsquare, or elsewhere.
I still understand wanting to post an interesting location, but your home, a random store you visit all the time...nah, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
And, I've heard of what you're talking about, Bernadetta, about burglars waiting for people to post that they're out before pouncing. I don't think people who post a lot on Twitter are trying to be narcissistic, and I admit that not all my tweats are riveting, packed with worldly wisdom and interest. But I do try not to post things like "my gum has lost its flavor" and such.
if in society we all did the same things all the time it'd be boring wouldn't it? So what is pointless and shit to me or someone else posting here isn't to the next person. Chelsea you need to calm down always trying to act tough and contrivercial give up you just look like a silly little girl trying to hard.
This board topic was created to gain peoples' opinions, and Chelsea shared her opinion. This board topic was not created so that people could insult others, so you can keep that to yourself, please. It's not productive to the discussion at hand.
this is the zone, where people often put their nose where it shouldn't be, so I'm not surprised that someone chose to call me out for sharing my opinion. someone, mind you, who, very clearly, wouldn't take the time to get to know me, anyway.
back to the topic, though. like Meglet said, it's one thing to share one's location when it's somewhere a person rarely goes, and totally another thing when they're displaying where they live, where they go to the pharmacy, ETC.
Surveillance and/or street cameras, monitoring systems, tracking devices, and any other kind of espionage going on in the world nowadays can be fruitful in police work as well as misused by criminals.
The brief description of online habits in the first post is reminiscent of a missing persons case which occurred earlier this year in Istanbul, Turkey. People all over the globe followed the story on Websleuths as the investigation was ongoing.
Speculation abounded, some believed the American mother of two had fallen prey to an online stalker lying in wait somewhere in Istanbul, many argued that she had been kidnapped by a sex tourism ring, while others concluded she had run away with a Turkish lover.
Though her case was by no means unique, what fueled the spurious theories was her constant updating on sites such as Instagram and Twitter. Complete strangers and friends alike were aware of her activity and her last thoughts were captured virtually in her messages. The search for her ended after over two weeks; her husband and brother flew there to help. There was street surveillance throughout the city as Istanbul is highly touristic. Detectives simply used the footage to trace her movements.
Ultimately all the ideas and opinions about her fate proved erroneous. The search party discovered her partially naked body concealed in a cave within the ancient city walls. She fell victim to a random attack by a would-be rapist who bludgeoned her in the heat of the struggle.
Cases such as this demonstrate how one’s online activity can be useful in various kinds of investigations.
I tend to be enjoying what I am doing and don't have time to post where I am at right then.
however! I do at times after an event, post that I had gone someplace special that day and enjoied myself.
Something I noticed, is that when I post random things on facebook, it post what city I am near but not my exact location. If I for whatever check to see where I am while in my apartment, it says I am a few houses down. Funny but interesting.
Might be your settings.
This topic came to mind just this morning when I was looking up the Starbucks i wanted to go to. In the Starbucks app it has a feature "share you location"
Now, if people that saw it would come on buy and pay for my coffee? Lol
I didn't post it. I don't have either a Twitter or Facebook, so.
I saw where you could set up Tweets after you die. Now that idea I like. Posting where you were. hahaha.
Tweets talking about what you ate or where you stopped on your way home from work are bad enough. Tweets after you die? Well, that just sounds like a really terrible supernatural story waiting to happen.
Like many others on here, I never did see the point of posting where you are on 4square or twitter or FB. Back when I had such things, the only times I would post is if I was on vacation somewhere and found a cool restaurant or if I discovered a new restaurant or was at an important event... I never saw the point of those who choose to check in at work or at home... that's just creepy to me... who cares?
Now that I do not have FB, Twitter, or any of the other social media empires tracking my every move, I feel much more free to do what I want... I only check my email once a day now, if that... and there's something freeing in that as well.
Kate
I'll admit I've done some of this since moving back to the city, more of a celebration.
Rather than defend myself, I'll take the opportunity to turn off Twitter in the Foursquare app, and leave everyone else out of it.
If one really interest on where you been, they can always follow you specificly on those checkin apps like 4sq etc. I'm not necesary agree that you are putting yourself in higher risk if you check in at these places. Again, by the second you turn on your phone, to the second you turn off your phone, you are expose to be trackable. Same goes as you on wifi network, or on internet network, or on any type of connection really, you can be track.
I think your circumstance is excusable, leo, since you haven't had the opportunity to get around on yoru own for years. It's a big deal, and you should celebrate that sort of thing.
Agreed with Bernadetta. In any case, I wanted to know the reasons behind it, not to condemn it, and I think some people have better reasons than others.
It's true that any time you turn on your phone you're trackable, but it's a lot easier for people to know where you are if you're posting it publicly, than if they'd have to be tech-savvy enough to use your phone to track you down. I wouldn't have a clue how to track someone via their phone's signal, but it's not hard for me to read a tweat. Still, I don't know how much evidence there is to back up the claim that exposing yourself in this way makes you vulnerable. Interesting research topic though.
I can answer this. Most hacking is now social and not as technical. So, because I now live on the 4th floor of a historic building, I am safe to check in there.
And, with Foursquare, you check in, not check out. It has more to do with what you're saying on the social networks, not the checkins themselves.
Track me baby. Come on by this bar I'm sitting in and pay my tab please. *snaps a picture of the bill. hahahaha
Right... that is why when I usually say where I am, it isn't long before I leave the place. I often post where I am as I am traveling on the train, I guess someone could track it and catch me when I get off at my destinations, but like I said before I don't see the point in worrying about things like that. They'll have a handful to deal with if they start shit with me, and if anything happens oh well. It's not being wreckless to share where you are every once in a while.
Personally, i'll be interested on my friends, specially when they are traveling, or going to some special place. i'm not interested when they tell me they have big mac for breakfast, starbug for lunch, and burger king for dinner. Then, have the same place all over again. I'm also not interested which apartment complex you in, what room your class in, and where your parents live.
i don't believe if you check in rapitly will make you more vulnerable than your neighbour, who may not check in at all. Is all about what you do, who you with, more so than where you at. I think, from the second you born, to the second you die, you are vulnerable in some way. Again, if people really want to track you down, it is not as hard as it seems. Social media just make it easier, but with your computer IP Address, one could easily figure it out your exact location with few clicks on the computer. Is that mean, you are never, ever, going to get online again? I believe, if i'm serious about it, i could just wave down a postman or postwoman, and ask for some randem name, say, Mrs. Smith, and with the proper technic and charm, it won't be hard for me to get the direction to Mrs. Smith's house either.
For me it's less about how trackable you are and more about how seemingly pointless it is. People like Leo who have an excuse are different from those who post absolutely every little thing they do every single day.
Keep in mind there are even apps for simplifying to post your geo locasions. like checkie? Some people may spend their travel time with these things I think. If they are bored, or if they want attention, or if they want more points from that app, they do that often.
Another thing which is annoying to me is their game updates. Nowadays, each and every app is getting linked with fakebook and twitter. So I'm really starting to hate those things, If you watch our blind society's twitter or facebook offlate, they keep on posting about their victories of diceworld and blah blah blah. It's irritating of course. If we say that it is irritating, they simply replying us straight away as, if you aint happy with my posts, just unfollow me.
Rude, isn't it?
Raaj.
Don't link. That is the thing. Lol