I swore I wouldn't

Jim Gaffigan has a bit where he observes that fast-food ordering has been reduced to shouting out a number “yeah, give me a number TWO” and he goes on to theorize that soon we’ll be reduced to grunts. That’s the direction we are headed with the new craze for “location-based” applications and services.

Hailed by technology evangelists, and feared by privacy advocates, location based social networking apps are popping up on Facebook and Twitter faster than weeds in my front yard.  The apps themselves don’t offend me, they seem to be reasonably attractive, and Lord knows there are enough of them to choose from (loopt, foursquare, check.in, etc.)  I’m not even that worried about the privacy aspect (http://robmenow.com/)   What concerns (depresses) me more is the continuing devolution of communication.   The trend toward grunting is depressing:

• Writing letters to a friend “Dear Madam,—I have been shown in the files of the War…”
  • Sending instant messages to your friend “Josh: You going to the game tonight?”
    • Tweeting (or status updating) “I hate Mondays, but I had a great weekend”
      • Checking-in “I’m here”

It’s difficult to imagine this devolving any further, as we have now reduced communication from the written word to simply pushing a button that tells people your geographic location. “I’m here”  ”now I’m here”  ”now I’m somewhere else”

I’m sure there are some that are using these things to realize their potential (i.e. using it to post information or reviews about a location; getting discounts and bonus offers from participating businesses) but that is the (rare) exception and not the rule.  Will these services mature into something that is genuinely useful?  Or are they an idea that was good on paper, but ultimately fails to reach it’s potential.  I’m betting on the latter, but hoping for the former.