Last week, I attended two Social Media Club of Seattle events; the first about the future of social media and the second about location based applications with presenters John Kim from Whrrl , Shauna Causey from Comcast, and Ricardo Rabago from PCC Natural Markets .
Social media means different things to different people, as there is no universally agreed upon definition nor will there ever be. Nevertheless, I think of social media as being a platform for building relationships, the creation of content designed to be disseminated through social interaction via web-based technologies, which therefore creates opportunities for online conversations.
I created my Google, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and just about every other social media account I have at home while sitting in front of a computer, door closed, with a cup of coffee to the right of my keyboard. But times are changing and so is social media; it’s becoming even more social, and I like it.
On December 1st of last year, I signed up with foursquare at Spotted Cow Cream & Bean, again with a cup of coffee in hand, but this time using my iPhone. I soon checked-in, letting everyone on Twitter & Facebook know that I was capturing caffeinated conversations. I sat alone at the coffee shop that day, but I was amongst strangers, so I wasn’t totally alone.
On January 8th, I met with Joe McCarthy (@gumption) at Starbucks. Joe introduced me to Whrrl, and like I did with foursquare, I created an account with my iPhone. Here, I checked-in with both foursquare and Whrrl. This time, Joe and I were co-creating content—taking pictures—face to face in a shared physical space.
Place matters and this I know to be true. Joe McCarthy writes:
The recent buzz about location-based social networking services such as Foursquare and GoWalla combined with recent reflections on my own work on using place as a catalyst for sociality has prompted me to read about, contemplate and extend the notion of object-centered sociality to include places in the pantheon of socialized objects, and to elaborate on what I might call place-centered sociality.
In “A Cup of Coffee With a Dash of Love: An Investigation of Commercial Social Support and Third-Place Attachment”, [Journal of Service Research, 2007, Vol. 10(1):43-59], Mark Rosenbaum and his colleagues investigated why some customers form attachments to third places – described by sociologist Ray Oldenburg as “homes away from home” where “unrelated people relate”, such as cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, bars and hair salon. Rosenbaum cites personal (vs. societal) sources of voids opening up in people’s lives: bereavement, divorce, separation, illness, retirement, and empty nest (children leaving home). Third places often serve to fill the resulting gaps in local social support networks. While people in third places often play a prominent role in filling these voids – performing the role of consequential strangers and acquaintances – the physical (or metaphysical) aspects of the places themselves can be an important factor in third place attachment and other types of relationships that people form with places, e.g., place identity, existential insideness, geopiety and topophilia.
Location based applications, and there are many of them, are changing the social landscape by making it easier for friends to meet and strangers who have the same place attachment to become less strange. Of course, how public you allow your check-ins to be is up to you and the application that you prefer to use.
Initiating a conversation with someone at a coffee shop or public / private space isn’t always an easy thing to do, but social media can facilitate it. Next time I go to a coffee shop and check-in via foursquare and/or Whrll, don’t be surprised if I say hello if you’ve checked in too. Either way, I’ll be leaving the following tip:
This is a conversation friendly place and since you’re willing to check-in, consider saying hello to a stranger, for he/she may become a consequential one. Don’t just stand there. Say something.
5 Comments
Thanks Jason and Joe, for these posts. It gives me more food for thought for the article I’m working on for the Psychotherapy Networkers about “The Relationship Revolution.” My point is that no matter where you are on the social media continuum–from novice to expert–everyone is affected. We’ve become so much more aware of people’s interdependence and rightfully view connection as a basic human need, right up htere with hunger and thirst. Cafes and other “being spaces”are a way to slake your thirst for coffee and companionship!
Ah yes, I enjoyed [recording on Whrrl] our meeting at Starbucks – Rose Hill.
Your tip regarding “Don’t just stand there. Say something” combined with the coffeeshop context reminds me of the story you retweeted about Coffee Party, With a Taste for Civic Participation, Is Added to the Political Menu. The Coffee Party motto is “Wake up and stand up” … to which I might add “speak up” … and perhaps even “listen up”, an increasingly rare phenomenon in politics.
@Joe McCarthy I wrote the blog post before learning about the coffee party; I thought a little extra push might help.
It seems that by checking-in, a person is making him or herself vulnerable, open to a response, whatever it may be. It can be perceived as an invitation to a conversation. I’m going to test this tomorrow, introduce myself to whomever also checks into the the coffee shops I visit.
@Jeanna Barrett No problem. A cup of coffee near your place sounds good to me. Would love to chat more about Whrrl and I have some interesting “check-in” stories to share.
@Veronica Sopher Thank you! I’ll be going to a few coffee shops tomorrow, so expect to see the tip.
Hi Jason,
Thanks for mentioning Whrrl! You’re right – location is stretching the limits of “social media” even further. It’s so exciting to see it all unfold. I’m enjoying seeing you on Whrrl. Perhaps sometime here soon, we can find ourselves in the same neighborhood, and share a cup of coffee.
Jason — Fantastic post! So glad you enjoyed SMC Seattle’s education session on LBS. I love the tip you’ll be leaving at coffee shops! Hope to check in at the same spot soon!