The “new twitter” Foursquare has surprisingly caught on quick here in Bangkok, partly thanks to the increase of Blackberry users as much as I hate to admit.

Foursquare is a location-based social app. The idea is you “check-in” at places you go during the day. It gives you points, which in turn ranks you in a city chart. And if you check it multiple times at a single place, you can become a “mayor” of that place. It’s a great app to meet people, see which friends are around. You can also add “tips” or advice for these places so other people who have never been there before know what to expect. I’d say it makes an awesome travel guide as you can switch cities.

I knew about this app a long time ago but only recently that they took on more international cities and Bangkok was one of them.

And I have been enjoying it and observing its growth in Bangkok. One thing for sure though, just like any other new social services, people here seem to always find a way to, not misuse, but misunderstand these social apps and turn it into one big mess. Examples:

- Iam Superhot is not an ideal Facebook name.
- RT in Twitter does not mean reply. And really you don’t need to give to us minute-by-minute emotion and digestion report.
- and of course “P’ Nat’s House”, “My room” and “I am drunk now” are not exactly the kind of places and tips Foursquare members can benefit from.

I really don’t know if they misunderstand or they just simply don’t care.

And some just care too much. Like checking in at every BTS station s/he journeys on, or getting insanely empowered by their bogus mayorship, that when I “took over” their favorite mall, they got all pissed off.

This is just insane.

I admit I am a social network addict. I have blogger, wordpress, facebook, twitter, tumblr, youtube, flickr, linkedin and more, and my hands are sometimes glued to the phone, but I’m still able to distinguish between online and offline world.

I had an idea of doing a Social Network Detox for a week to see if I am still capable of living without checking my friends’ and updating my status. I still don’t know when though. Maybe for New Year.