One more reason NOT to let friends tag you.
Facebook “check-in” is a great business tool…unless you’re engaged in monkey business.
Are you familiar with this feature? Businesses post their locations on Facebook maps to make it easier for potential customers to find them. If you visit one and have “location services” enabled on your smart phone, Facebook prompts you to check-in. This posts a little map on your Facebook wall with the business name highlighted. Your friends know what you’re doing and the place gets a plug, so everybody wins, right?
Ri-i-i-i-ght.
People only use this feature when they’re hanging out somewhere cool like a trendy nightclub, fancy restaurant or the gym. Especially the gym. That little map with the health club starred is a deliberate shame-slap to those of us who may or may not be surfing Facebook while curled up on the couch in our jammies with a box of cheap red wine and an economy-sized bag of Cheetos.
It seems to me that folks who check-in at places that make them look good should have to use that feature EVERYwhere they go. We want to know when they’re visiting:
- Big Bubba’s $12.99 Belly Up To The Trough Buffet
- 50 Shades of Gray Bondage Supply Emporium
- Back home in bed when they’re supposed to be out calling on clients
- In their hot neighbor’s bed when they’re supposed to be out calling on clients
- Nip & Tuck Rejuva-Spa
- Rudy’s Liquor Mega-Mart
Only by insisting on full disclosure can we truly get to know our dear “friends” better.
Where else should people be required to check-in?
Peg-o-Leg's Ramblings 
I’m sure the DEA would love to trick people into checking in at their meth dealer’s house…..
LikeLiked by 2 people
Great idea! But I bet they’re already working on that.
LikeLike
Sex Toys “R” Us. (How do you make a backwards r on this damn thing?)
LikeLiked by 2 people
Doesn’t matter when you have their Frequent Flyer Catalog coming to the house every week, Al. Everybody already knows.
LikeLike
I have mine wrapped in brown paper.
LikeLike
This all seems creepy to me, but once again shows how Facebook’s “free” services are parlayed into selling out consumers for profit and advertising. It is all the more bizarre that people actually do “check in”, but I’m getting old and crotchety. My brain still doesn’t understand the appeal of selfies.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I must be older, my brain does not get the necessity of facebook.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I must be Grandma Moses, because I don’t get the appeal of computers!!! Oh, wait…scratch that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The toilet, of course.
LikeLiked by 3 people
The Auto Flush/Check In feature is just months away, Jackie.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Casinos?
Strip clubs? (Those, too, would be obligatory when they are supposed to be on a business trip)
Lawyers – YOU WOULD want to know when somebody prepares a divorce, wouldn’t you?
Their mistress/lover? Or maybe you would not want to know that?
Fast food restaurants? (Those with the bill they cause there!)
Beauty surgeons?
LikeLike
All good choices. By which I mean bad choices for someone to check-in.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Needless to say this is not a FB feature I use. In fact, I don’t know what I’m even doing still having a FB account. I rarely post. I just occasionally click some likes. Once I got poked by someone, and it completely freaked me out. Couldn’t they come up with a better term? Shudder.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know! I got poked, too, and I didn’t know how to respond. What is the correct poking etiquette? Do I poke back? I don’t even know where the poking button is. Not that I really want to push it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hear you. Mine was from some guy I didn’t recognize. I just let it be. Seemed the smartest option. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
What is this “poking” business??? Do I even want to know? Sounds creepy to me, too.
LikeLike
I couldn’t explain it if I wanted to…
LikeLike
Someone finally explained why anyone would think FB Check-in is a terrific idea and a giant step for mankind – you only turn it on to show off…..sort of like the rest of FaceBook?
Afraid I’m just not cool enough for it
LikeLike
Exactly. If it was showing all the places we REALLY go during a day, it would be disabled in a heartbeat.
LikeLiked by 1 person
or die of boredom…another dog walk?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I find it interesting that this hot neighbor’s bed is apparently an established business that offers the customers an option to check in.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s in las Vegas.
LikeLike
STD Clinic?
County jail intake center?
Dollar store on your way to wedding reception?
I could go on and on but enough about my afternoon.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dollar Store pre-wedding? Brutal.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s just how I roll!
LikeLike
I don’t mean doing it…I mean getting caught. That’s how I roll, too.
How’s every thing with you, Miss k8e? Haven’t seen you around in quite a while.
LikeLike
I wish I could say I have been writing my best seller, or spending my lottery winnings or even hiding because I’m in the witness protection program…but the truth is I have just been sick and tired. Fortunately, I am starting to feel better and have even been thinking (just thinking) about firing up the old blog again. I miss it, and the intellectual stimulation of reading all the witty comments.
LikeLike
I am definitely guilty of this, Peg. I only check in when I’m trying to brag. Like the other night when I went to a bar called, The Dirty Truth. I love the name so much and it’s such a cool place that I wanted everyone to know my dirty truth! I’m usually at doctor’s appointments the rest of the time so I don’t think people want to know this. If you do, I will check in and private message you the next time I go for my colonoscopy! 🙂 🙂
LikeLike
Er, thanks but no. That’s the kind of Dirty Truth I don’t want to know.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha,ha!! 🙂
LikeLike
The local VD clinic (if there even is such a thing). I have never and will never use that feature.
LikeLike
Good call.
LikeLike
Victoria’s Secret.
LikeLike
I think a lot of young things (guys and gals) would WANT to brag on that – not me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, at 62, I can’t find anything sexy about myself. Victoria’s Secret is one of those places I shop when buying my daughters gifts.
LikeLike
I don’t use the check-in feature on facebook, as you said, it serves no purpose other than to show off, and to provide free advertising for the place you’re at. I have a friend on there who checks-in a lot and I think a couple of times when I’ve been with her she’s checked me in with her by tagging me, but I don’t believe I’ve ever checked myself in. I love facebook, but some of the things we do on there are weird, as perfectly illustrated in this video – have you seen this? (I’m not sure if this is going to embed or just have the link, so if it embeds and you don’t like that, sorry!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! That’s pretty funny, and so true. Thanks for embedding so masterfully.
LikeLike
Yeah I never got the point of checking in somewhere. I also don’t enjoy when friends tag me in their check in and don’t tell me until I log onto Facebook to find out I’ve been tagged. I’m okay with sharing parts of my life online (heck I have FB, Instagram, Twitter, and a blog) but the minutia of my day is not that thrilling. If I checked in every time I went to CVS (which is several times a week seeing as how I live right across from a 24 hour CVS), people would start to think I have a problem.
LikeLike
The next step is check-in posting everything you BOUGHT at CVS. It’s just around the corner.
LikeLike
Hahaha true. I’m sure there will be people who will use that capability when it’s available, if it’s not already.
LikeLike
Facebook is probably in negotiations with Coke, Proctor Gamble and GE right now.
LikeLike
The County lock up. The cops on TV always tell the crooks they’re entitled to one phone call, but I’ve never heard the cops limit the number of check ins.
LikeLike
Hey, good point! And won’t the other people who were arrested along with you for indecency, drunk and disorderly be thrilled when you tag them.
LikeLike
They might tag you back, and not necessarily in a nice FB kind of way.
LikeLike
I don’t tag or twitter or instagram or poke, at least not intentionally. FB gets weirder as I learn more about it.
LikeLike
So true. I think there’s a lot about it we don’t know, and maybe it’s best that way.
LikeLike
Funerals.Apparently, it’s a thing.
http://wtop.com/lifestyle/2015/05/social-media-and-mourning-funerals-may-be-the-last-frontier/
LikeLike
Oh. No. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve seen people goofing around with their phones at church. Not even the sacred is sacred, apparently.
LikeLike
The friendly neighborhood red-light district. With the ‘What are you doing?’ and ‘Tag Friends’ as mandatory fields.
LikeLike
With selfies.
LikeLike
That abandoned building, where Sam Goody’s used to be… 🙂
LikeLike
But….but isn’t the whole point of Facebook to brag? Or have I been doing it wrong this whole time? (by the way, I’m commenting on this post straight from that hip, happenin’ place Booze-R-Us)
LikeLike
I hate the Tag Friends feature. I don’t need everyone to know where I am every second of the day…only moms need to know that kind of stuff.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am still glad to not be on Facebook, if nothing more than the ‘creepiness’ of it all! Love that video that was posted in the comments. I can’t wait to read what kind of awesome unintended consequences the tagging feature results in a year or so.There might already be a blog just about that…
LikeLike
But when I want to tag someone, like in that old photo of my mom, Facebook won’t cooperate. Grrrrr!
LikeLike
The Best Lil’ Whore House in Texas
Yes, there is still one and I don’t think you should advertise if you are a frequent guest.
LikeLike
Ha! Unless you’re Dolly Parton.
LikeLiked by 1 person