ReadWriteWeb recently ran a post titled, “Why We Check In”. I started to comment on the article, but decided my thoughts really did make up a full post on the same topic.  The article opined that there are three reasons people use check-in based services such as FourSquare and Gowalla.  First, people use it to connect with other people.  To realize, “oh hey, you’re in the next bar?  Come over and grab a drink!”.  Second, people use it to compete in the little game that is FourSquare (it awards point for various types of check-ins as well as mayorships of individual locations) or to collect items in Gowalla (you can leave a virtual “item” somewhere and someone else can pick it up).  Third, people use it as a personal history.  They like to look back and see where their travels have taken them over the last several days/weeks/months.

While I’m normally a big fan of ReadWriteWeb, I find myself disagreeing with most of this article.  I am an active FourSquare user (if you are too, go friend me!) and while I’m definitely using it for the social connection reason they established, the rest of my reasons do not match their list.

I am not playing FourSquare for the game aspect of it, though I guess I would miss the mayorships if they went away  I could care less about the points though.  The mayorships I don’t really think of competitive either, I just think of it as a fun way to learn a little bit about a place.  I also think the mayorships you have indicate things to your friends (see my next point).

While I think the “personal history” is a valid reason for using a service like FourSquare, I think it’s primary purpose is as a public history (not a private one).  I don’t often look back on where I’ve checked in, but I know people look back on where I’ve checked in to learn something about me.  Particularly they look at the recommendations I’ve made and the places I’m mayor of.  This is one of the core tenants of social media, you can learn (and computers can learn automatically) whether you’re similar to someone by looking through their profiles.

I think there’s one other big thing that this article misses, people also use FourSquare and other such services to find places to go.  This is especially true for those of us that travel regularly.  We can use FourSquare (or Gowalla or Yelp) to find out the kinds of places that locals frequent, and even (using tips and recommendations) the kind of food/activity/drinks they recommend in those locations.  This is an extremely powerful application of these tools that ReadWriteWeb has skipped over.