• by ryan.y , October 1, 2010

This week I wanted to talk about a recently discovered application on Facebook that my friends are consumed by. The idea behind it is that locations are saved on Facebook, and these locations can be given names that are then recorded and used when the application is in use. These locations are then referenced every time you visit them. The application itself is called Check-in. What it does is it allows you to check in at the location you're currently at, and once checked in there will be a physical notation on your Facebook page saying that you are there and a time stamp of when you checked in.

The application as a whole is pretty low key in comparison to the other high profile apps. The only reason I noticed it is because of my friends frequent usage. Every time I would log onto Facebook I would have a detailed log of where my friends have been at the exact time.

At first I thought it was comical, an inside joke between friends, but the more I thought the more I realized that these feature may one day become a social norm with in the realms of social networking. Although they would never admit it, “checking in” has become somewhat of a habitual process for them, and why shouldn’t it be. Social networking has broken the barriers of how we as a society interact. It has helped closed the physical gap with a virtual solution. Helping to keep families informed and friends up to date about almost every aspect of your life, or at least what you chose to make public. It has become a habitual routine within all of our lives.

How many can truthfully say that they have more often then not, gone the entire day without logging onto Facebook? So, would it be far fetched to assume that “checking in” could be another process that occurs as frequently as we post comments and tweet? Allowing not only for our social practices and feelings to be open to our friends and family, but our physical location at that exact moment in the physical world. I don’t think so, but it could also just be a passing fad that my never extend beyond the few friends I know who use it.

I have not tried it for myself and have limited knowledge on how to even use it, but starting next week Ill begin using it for myself to see if its something I could see myself doing on a routine basis. Hopefully then I may be able to give you a more detailed description of the application itself. If its something that sounds interesting to you, I encourage you to give it a try. As for now, I'm “checking out”, till next week.