If you are like me and millions of others, you have become a Facebook junkie - staying connected with family and friends from across every stage of your life, especially showing everyone your travel tales with posted pictures and comments from across the globe.
And if you have taken the plunge on Twitter, you may be sending tweets daily, hourly or every other minute or so on your journeys across the globe. These two social media websites let us give the people who love us or just want to follow us real time information about what we are doing, where we are visiting and the pictures we are taking.
Well, there is another great website/app out there that you may have not heard of that is specifically targeted for people who are on the go. Foursquare is a hybrid website and mobile application that combines the best of GPS, worldwide locations and a social networking game all in one.
The gist of Foursquare is that you download the application to your mobile device, and when you are traveling across town or across the globe, you can go to your Foursquare app and look up the locations that are near where you are. Once you find the location you are at, you get to check-in, and it will automatically give you points for every check-in which are then communicated to your Facebook page or Twitter page depending on how you sign-up for Foursquare.
What is cool about this is that your friends on Foursquare and Facebook or Twitter know exactly where you are if they want to find you. Or they can just be jealous as they see you checking in at Charles De Galle Airport in Paris or at the Statue of Liberty in New York City. Now you may be asking yourself, "Why do I need this?"
Well, it definitely is not a necessary part of your life, but if you travel often and you like sharing your travels with others, I find Foursquare like a travel journal of sorts where I can keep track of everywhere I go and get points for it....the points by the way will be kept track of in your account online and you can check-in frequently to find out how you are doing. The folks at Foursquare are still figuring out what to do with the point system, but it is fun to review where you have been and what you have done using Foursquare. When I started using Foursquare, I was skeptical. But after checking in across Chicago, LA and Hawaii, it has become an every day challenge for me to see how many places I can go that are in the Foursquare network and a fun way to record all of my comings and goings while on the road or in my hometown!
In the information age we live in, I recommend checking it out!
Monica Rohleder
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