You are not your iPhone. You are not your tweets. You are not your checkins. Quitting a service is not suicide in any meaningful respect.
Relatedly, the construction of identity around relationship to technology is one of the dangers of spending your time with the tech crowd. If you hang around the Valley all day and TechCrunch is your only source of news, you might get the impression that this stuff matters. At the end of the day, its still bits.
I don't think we're taking it that seriously. We just had to pick a word to describe it, and suicide was close enough, while being dramatic enough to put in a headline.
In a phone conversation you are having an actual conversation. You can hear a human, the tone of the voice, hear if the other person responds immideately or hesitates. You get lots of contextual information you can't get from text alone.
And as the name implies a telephone conversation is an actual conversation. A conversation involves interaction.
With twitter you are not so much in a conversation as you yelling and hoping that gits on the internet will give you attention.
So yes, I'd say there is a difference and it lies in how the medium works, not in its implementation (i.e. digital or analog).
Criminal usage of sharing services is potentially an enormous problem. He got off lightly with realizing his disclosure risks only through stalking.
Using only a few services a criminal could potentially have access to personal information that would aid in guessing common security prompts (Facebook, etc), lists of purchases or photos of your possessions (Blippy, Facebook, Flickr, etc), and your physical location and/or travel plans (Twitter and numerous others).
I think the anonymity we perceive from the fact that our disclosure is not person to person is a cognitive misconception. Realistically, we are walking around and publicly saying these bits of information. Something about telling them to and receiving them from a computer does not make it seem that way though.
For these reasons I am always deliberately hazy about discussing my travel plans on Twitter and Facebook. I'll announce when I'm return, but never when I leave or for how long. The criminal possibilities are too great.
It's always seemed insane to me that anyone would announce their whereabouts at greater than a square kilometre's accuracy (and even then I'd be paranoid).
Privacy concerns don't affect you until they affect you.
Most of us aren't worth stalking, or even paying attention to. For most of us, regardless of our stance on privacy, the benefits of finding people to eat lunch with (http://www.amazon.com/Never-Eat-Alone-Secrets-Relationship/d...) outweigh the risks of attracting a stalker.
It's possible that one day we'll get our 15 minutes of fame/notoriety in front of 15 people or 15 million. Then we'll stop seeking celebrity and care more about privacy. Mostly without loss, perhaps with some nostalgia for the good old times.
Don't worry people[1] will steal your privacy; you'll have to shove it down their throats.
[1] Governments and corporations are a different matter.
I'm actually surprised that there hasn't already been more Location Based Service-crime. In addition to stalking, it seems like robbery and theft would be rampant.
There's already been cases where thefts happened after people tweeted that they were going on vacation (http://www.socialreflections.com/twitter-connection-to-home-...). I wouldn't be surprised if the number of social-media related robbery increases as these services continue to gain traction.
By using services that tell people exactly where you are, you're really telling people exactly where you aren't: your home.
> By using services that tell people exactly where you are, you're really telling people exactly where you aren't: your home.
Craigslist has had its share of issues with people getting robbed. I don't necessarily think that Craigslist is a bad thing though.
You have the same issue with valets. You give them your keys (which probably contain the keys to your house/apartment), your insurance information is in the glove compartment (which contains your address), and they know that you're not at home because you still need to get your car out of valet.
It's the opposite of what was talked about above. They aren't using Craigslist to figure out when people won't be home, they are using it to lure people to a particular place to rob them (and make sure that they will have cash on them).
I'm an avid Brightkite user, and a budding Foursquare user. To me, they both serve different purposes. For one, I like Brightkite because it's an okay place to start conversations. If I really want something to go to Twitter and Facebook, and to easily geo-tag my mobile photo uploads on Flickr, Brightkite is hard to beat. That said, I don't check in everywhere I go, and my check-ins are often vague. Cities or major intersections instead of actual addresses or venues. Of course, there are exceptions.
Generally, I only check in when I want people to know where I am, and it's often an invitation to come kick it with me. And if I check in to the same coffee shop every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning, you'd bet I'd be glad to have you come up and and have a talk over a cup of joe if you "stalk" me and can predict where I'll be. Heck, I've met two people I consider great friends simply because we were checked in nearby on Brightkite and finally crossed paths.
It comes down to moderation. If you feel the need to check in every single time you move more than a few hundred feet in any given direction, you're probably OCD. Basically, I only check in if I plan on my situation becoming social.
While I think the author was a bit heavy handed in his reaction (why not ask for better privacy tools or checkin a little more selectively?), the privacy + location services conversation is a pretty interesting one.
Understanding this sort of backlash is probably a pretty big deal to folks trying to build location into their applications.
I've used some of these services and I've yet grokked the point. They make me feel like a baby playing with a mobile: lots of loud noises and blinky lights. MyTown is the best at this.
So is that all there is to these things? Or are they just geek mobiles?
"I don't like being an ego broadcaster!" he shouted loudly from the nearest rooftop. A dozen people below looked up in bewilderment, shrugged, then continued about their day.
Also, you people (yes, I said "you people"), use the word "suicide" too lightly. I wonder what is prompting people to use extreme/heavy words to describe everyday casual situations. Is it pure ego and attention driven?
Your assertion that the word suicide should carry more weight reminds me of complaints that describing a project as "stillborn" is insensitive to parents that have lost a baby, and that using the terms master/slave in technical documents is discriminatory.
A year or so ago, I was going to help a stranger jump-start his car. He didn't have jumper cables with him, but I keep a set in all of my motorized vehicles. I generally assume (often rightly so) that folks who don't own a pair of jumper cables do not know how to correctly utilize them. Whilst giving him the 15-second explanation on their use, he interrupted me.
"Man... why black always gotta be NEGATIVE?"
I took my jumper cables out of his hands, tossed them into the back of my car and drove off, leaving him with his hood (and his jaw) wide open. I haven't the time for crap like that.
If we're talking about checkin tedium, why not combine Android's Locale app with a script which accesses the Foursquare API? When you reach a certain GPS location, you check in automatically. This would work as long as you don't have several regular hangouts in the same general area...
Relatedly, the construction of identity around relationship to technology is one of the dangers of spending your time with the tech crowd. If you hang around the Valley all day and TechCrunch is your only source of news, you might get the impression that this stuff matters. At the end of the day, its still bits.