Checking In, Checking Out – A Memoir of Mobile Social App Addiction

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From MediaPost's Social Media Insider

Checking In, Checking Out

I
have a confession to make. On more than one occasion over the past several
weeks, I&39;ve excused myself at several restaurants to go to the bathroom to
indulge my guilty little habit. My wife tolerates it, but it&39;s taking a toll on
my social life, and getting addicted once makes it all too easy for it to
happen again.

I&39;m referring, of course (ahem), to location-based mobile social
networking applications. I&39;ve been playing with eight of them lately: Buzzd,
CauseWorld, Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, MyTown, Whrrl, and Yelp. These apps all
offer ways to find friends, local hot spots, and often both, and they&39;re
increasingly incorporating location-based advertising.

I have mixed feelings about the overall craze. I&39;ve discovered
friends near me through these apps, and I&39;ve learned about local destinations.
Yet it can get antisocial; I&39;ve discreetly checked in under restaurant tables
across the country. And when I&39;ve really wanted to be discreet, yes, I&39;ve done
it in the bathroom. It gets to be a problem when you start interacting with the
apps so much that you&39;re not interacting with the people in front of you.

After weeks of using some of these and months of using others,
I&39;ve provided a rundown of how these apps differentiate themselves. To bring
them to life for those who aren&39;t actively using them, I&39;ve paired each app
with a celebrity that personifies it. Note that all references below are to the
latest iPhone versions, and the corresponding links go to the iTunes store.

Buzzd: Lindsay
Lohan

Buzzd
doesn&39;t give a <bleep> if you&39;re in JFK or the grocery store. It wants to tell
you what&39;s hot and where the A-listers are. Are you the party girl — or the
paparazzi? Take a spin with Buzzd, which remains far safer than hanging out
with Lohan, since you probably won&39;t wind up in a rehab clinic by sunrise.
Buzzd is a little too cool for me so I don&39;t use it as much as the others, but
if you&39;re more into bottle service than cupcake trucks, party on.

CauseWorld: Lance Armstrong

I dare you to say something bad about Lance Armstrong. Come on,
the guy has won more Tour de Frances than, well, whoever has won the second
most Tour de Frances, and now he&39;s become one of the best known faces of
philanthropy. CauseWorld
may not be as much of a name brand as Armstrong, but it&39;s just as much the
do-gooder. Every time you check in somewhere, largely at retailers and
restaurants, you earn karma points that you can donate to a number of
charities, all thanks to sponsors. The appeal here is all about the charity
rather than finding your friends.

Foursquare: Ashton Kutcher

Foursquare&39;s
the red-hot celebrity trailblazer. Just like Ashton keeps doing things his own
way, from popularizing the cougar craze to starting his own production company,
Foursquare is responsible for a lot of how we think about mobile social media,
from "merit" badges to local advertising. Foursquare may not be as
mainstream as Ashton, but Ashton likes hanging with the geeks and cool kids now
anyway. It&39;s tough to say how well Foursquare will play to the masses, as the
whole idea of checking in creeps some people out. I still like using it to see
if I know people at certain venues, but a lot of the fun of the badges has
started to wear off.

Gowalla: Anna
Kendrick

You might be thinking, "Anna who?" That&39;s the reaction I
still get when talking about Gowalla,
even as it racks up investments and increases its global appeal. Kendrick is
the younger female lead in "Up in the Air" with that breakthrough
performance, and Gowalla is also adorable in its own way with a big opportunity
ahead. I like the gaming aspect of it, where you find virtual objects in
various locations, and you drop objects of your own to claim spots as a
founder. And as Kendrick isn&39;t just a pretty face but brings credible acting
chops to her roles, Gowalla has its own talents with locating you and keeping
you honest. You can only check in if you&39;re really at or close to a location,
something Foursquare doesn&39;t require.

Loopt: Mark-Paul
Gosselaar, circa "Saved by the Bell"

You remember Gosselaar. He was an adorable kid during the
"Saved by the Bell" middle school years and then became the
heartthrob in high school. But his popularity faded when they tried stretching
the show to college. I fear the same is happening to Loopt. Sure,
it was in Apple&39;s ads for awhile and may have a passionate fan base. But it
seems short on features compared to its competition. During its
"college" phase now, it&39;s the one I keep forgetting about. Remember
though, "Zack Morris" returned to rave reviews in "NYPD
Blue" and even played Broadway in a successful run; Loopt still could have
a strong second act ahead.

MyTown by Booyah: Ellen DeGeneres

MyTown
has the most fun with location-based checkins. It&39;s bright and cheery, and you
can&39;t help but get caught up with how much fun it&39;s having — not unlike
watching Ellen do her little dance routines. In MyTown, you buy properties and
upgrade them, and then you keep collecting rent while finding new items to
boost your points (writing this reminded me that my rent was due). And just
like Ellen has done alright making a living off of her shtick, the latest
version of MyTown includes various game boosts for sale, both for real dollars
and virtual treasure. I spent $1.99 for a pack of "leaderboard wins"
that increased my points, and I may have to shell out a bit more. Its
popularity is on the rise; TechCrunch
reported this month it&39;s bigger than Foursquare and Gowalla.

Whrrl: Dame Helen Mirren

Whrrl&39;s
not the newest or the hottest of the apps, and it&39;s been around awhile relative
to some of the others. It&39;s more of the artiste, like Dame Mirren, and a bit of
a shape-shifter who myou can&39;t always recognize. Whrrl has been through a
number of changes in its career, but it remains focused on storytelling, and
does the most to encourage sharing captioned photos of where you are. It&39;s not
a must-use for me, but I like how it practices its craft, including telling you
the most popular spots people go after checking in where you are. Expect more
innovation to come from it.

Yelp: Michael
Jordan — on the Chicago White Sox

Yelp&39;s
a monster when it comes to review apps, dominating its field. It has the chance
to be the Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls style) of review sites, if it doesn&39;t
get crushed by Google. But now it&39;s trying a new game, adding check-ins. While
users love it for reviews, the notion of checking in is not part of its core
purpose. I found myself checking in for the sake of doing so, not because I
particularly enjoyed it. Still, when I used Facebook Connect to find which
friends were using it, I added dozens of connections instantly, giving me more
of a network there than on any other such app.

I&39;m not getting rid of any of these apps just yet, and I&39;m sure
I&39;ll wind up trying others. But I won&39;t need to check in at every place at
every venue, as I&39;d rather make the most of the time with the people in front
of me rather than earning points for broadcasting my whereabouts to others. If
the habit&39;s so bad I can&39;t do it at the dinner table, I&39;m better off not
doing it.