The Wortham article about Foursquare talked about a new way of getting together with friends. Rather than text a friend to ask “Where are you?” or “Let’s get together” you can just look up their location on foursquare. Foursquare also plays to our competitive nature as humans to protect the “mayorships” of locations one aquires by going there. This creates a game that gets adults to go out and do new things. This system is very beneficial to small businesses who can attract visitors by offering perks for people who use foursquare and come to their shop frequently. Foursquare also helps spread the word on new businesses as well, if one person sees a friend in a nearby cafe they’ve never tried, they’re more likely to go in and see their friend and try the cafe as well.
-Christina
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October 27, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Alex McP
While I don’t agree with Foursquare in general, I do agree if I saw a friend in a new place on Foursquare I’d probably visit. So I guess it really could be good for these businesses.
October 27, 2009 at 6:33 pm
politicsnewmedia
I think Foursquare seems like an interesting idea. A little extreme – but still interesting. Like Alex mentioned above, if I saw a friend on Foursquare I’d be more inclined to try it out.
October 27, 2009 at 7:37 pm
mkwpnm
I suppose that it could be good for business–particularly the smaller privately owned stores on the site. This is all contingent on who becomes the ultimate users of the technology. If the affluent/more-educated people that have adopted it move away and are replaced with less educated/less affluent members like happened with Myspace, we may not see an sustained increase in the firms’ earnings.
October 27, 2009 at 11:17 pm
paigelav
I’m with you Mary, I think it’s good for small businesses and it’s really going to rely on whether or not people use Foursquare. If my friends were on it I may try it, but I’m still not sure about it.
October 28, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Deb
I can totally see how someone would use Foursquare to avoid an ex or people they don’t like. Mary, it’s like what you said about social divisions.