I've been using foursquare since March 27 (I looked it up) and have checked in 181 times. I'm hooked and check in everywhere.
foursquare is a location-based application that you download on your phone. Once you make an account, whenever you visit a public place, you check-in. Once you check in, you earn points, a possible mayorship (I have 7), a possible badge, and the ability to share with all your friends where you are. And no, you can't check into a place you aren't actually at. If you're more than 1000 meters away, it doesn't count for anything, so no cheating!
At first, I thought it would be creepy because, really, why would I want to tell people where I am? A creep could find me and stalk me. It's all public places (with a few people making their homes a check-in spot, which is the biggest danger I see), so if a stalker wants to find you, they need to track your location and get to you in the time that you are there. It keeps you checked in a place for two hours, so even if you leave and don't check in anywhere else, it says you're still there. The chances of stalking aren't likely because, well, we tell people where we are anyway on Facebook statuses, don't we? "Going to the mall!" "At work fml." "Seeing a concert today!" foursquare makes it that more easy.
It's also very, very fun. You want to get as many mayorships and badges as possible, so it's addicting to say to yourself, "I can't leave yet, I need to check-in first," in case you didn't right away.
It's pretty easy to function because they list all the places for you in the app. It tells you what's close to you and you pick the one that you're at. Yes, here you can cheat a little bit because if you're at a place that's close to other businesses, you can check-in at both. However, you can't check-in back-to-back because you don't get points for one (trust me, I've tried). Plus, it takes the fun from it.
You realize with foursquare that you go to places way too often (I've been to Pick n Save 12 times in the past two months and I don't do the grocery shopping), but it gives you a sense that it's okay because you get to be mayor or a better chance to be. Also, you can get the local badge.
foursquare's website can be found here.
The app can be found for the iPhone, Droid, and BlackBerry.
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