Is Twitter Twacking You with GPS?

By Greg Bartlett / guest author

Social media has taken our culture by storm.  Twitter, Facebook, MySpace…it seems like we can hardly go for five minutes without checking our status, seeing who posted on our wall, or what the most recent tweet is.  Our world is constantly online.  It is rare to pass people on the sidewalk who aren’t completely glued to their cell phones, downloading and uploading and texting.

This relatively new technology of social media can allow people to remain in virtually unbroken communication.  In the words of Thomas Friedman, author of the well-known book on globalization, the “world is flat” –and is becoming more so every day, it seems.  The longer these types of media are around, the more they evolve and the more “enhancements” are developed to attract users.

One such “enhancement” is the use of a GPS type tracking device in Twitter that gives your location every time you tweet.  This posts your real-time physical location and is purported to be optional, but some fear the danger that it can still be used by other people to determine your location even if you have it turned off from your end.  Why would twitter use GPS?  For one thing, it gives another way to narrow searches to a particular location.  For another thing, it can even show a Google map of your location.  If you’re at Starbucks, your friends can join you!

While this may be useful for narrowing searches, it also brings up some potential privacy or danger issues.  If your friends can join you at Starbucks, so can someone you may not want to find you there.  This can be a particularly dangerous feature for young people, who may not yet realize the implications of constant or indiscreet tweets that reveal their physical, real-time location to the entire world, complete with Google map.

GPS tracking systems have many benefits, not a few of which are parents keeping track of their teenagers, vehicle tracking, and even pet tracking.  But there is a difference between parents using a GPS with their teenagers and GPS being connected to a highly popular form of social media.  If you are a Twitter user and you are devoted and committed to continuing your tweets, consider the implications of the GPS tracking device and make sure you always put safety first.

Greg Bartlett is a guest author who specializes in writing about GPS technology and has earned two master’s degrees.

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