Social media trends - The death of geosocial apps? I say probably not.

In class this week, I've asked everyone to write about strategic planning. But since I don't want to give anything away on my blog, I'm not going to do that. Instead I'm going to write about one social media trend that I find puzzling and the kind of questions it raises about the future of social media/real life integration.

The trend that I'd like to discuss today is known as Geosocial networking. It is the linking of traditional social networking with the GPS capabilities found on most peoples mobile devices. It started innocently enough, with social networking applications which allowed people to review restaurants they were visiting or offer travel tips to fellow smartphone users, but now it's grown to the point where people are expressing concerns about their privacy.

Now, I've always been one of those people who was nervous with the mere thought that my phone had GPS on it, and was trackable, so I am obviously not the target audience for geosocial networking. If you Google the term "geosocial networking" you'll be treated to articles on why it's doomed to fail, but despite this, I'm not sure this trend is going to die a predictable death in all communities. There are two reasons for this:

1) Firstly, studies have shown that the younger generation is less concerned with personal privacy than those who came before them. Maybe they don't want to participate in geosocial networking from their home, but perhaps these individuals would be open to participating some of the time, when they are in a public place, going to see the popular blockbuster movie or sold-out concert.

2) Secondly, and more importantly, we have to consider different community norms and how these norms may impact the adoption of certain technologies. For example, some of my best friends in the queer community have successfully used geosocial applications for everything from finding where to eat dinner to finding a potential romantic partner. In this community, there tends to exist a cultural norm that leaves people more open to meeting strangers (who usually are only one or two degrees of separation away from you anyway). In this case, geosocial applications are less an invasion of privacy and more an invitation to a friend you haven't met yet. I wonder if community norms in these cases will keep some of these applications afloat for a very long time (relatively speaking of course).

So while I don't understand geosocial applications myself, I am less likely to forsee their impending doom. At most, I predict that they will find a niche place in the long tail of the diverse internet.