Julie Cardella leads a busy life here at Syracuse University. Not only is she a senior English and textual studies major, but she is also the proud mayor of five local communities. Under her reign of governance are a popular Syracuse bar and two apartment buildings, among other things.

If you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about, you may not be familiar with the growing popularity of the social network utility dubbed Foursquare. This handy location-based website and smartphone application allows users to share their current location with fellow users and share tips about certain venues. By checking in at the same place repeatedly, one may eventually attain the title of mayor of that place. That earns them, well, bragging rights and a little yellow crown next to their user names. That’s incentive enough if I’ve ever heard it.

This fairly new service was created in 2009 (by a Syracuse alumnus, no less) but already has over 6 million users. As it continues to snowball, the methods for which it is used continues to evolve alongside it. One of the ways it has adapted to the multifaceted world of modern social media is by allowing users to push their check-ins and tips to their Twitter accounts. Big deal, right? Well, actually, yes — just ask the founders of PleaseRobMe.com.

This website took the information willingly posted on Foursquare and Twitter and maneuvered it into a stream of location awareness for certain people. Those visiting the site could have up-to-the-minute updates on an individual’s location and could decipher the user’s home from his or her check-in patterns. If you’re still not seeing a problem here, just look at the website name and, voila, there’s your answer. Oversharing geo-based information can compromise the sanctity of your stuff.

The site, no longer a functional stream of the location-based vomit emitted by Twitter users, now serves as a cautionary tale. It states on its ‘Why’ page that ‘the danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not … home.’

By checking in at every location and sharing that information with masses of unknown people, users ignorantly put themselves at risk for robbery or worse.

In light of Egypt’s technological decapitation, this has become all too clear. We are dependent on our connectivity — we thrive from it and live for it. While we put our belongings at risk by sharing locations or our futures in jeopardy by posting pictures from that crazy New Year’s party we attended, overall our existence as members of the connected generation has manifested itself in our ability to do just that: connect.

However, there are safe ways to use this site. One way to protect your awesome 42-inch high-definition television is not to link your Foursquare to your Twitter and Facebook. Another is to monitor how the information is shared through these avenues. Yours truly is among Foursquare’s 6 million users, and I am anxiously waiting for the day I can earn a mayor status of my very own. But in that endeavor, I opt to not push my location check-ins to my Twitter account.

The multimayor maverick Cardella can attest to proper Foursquare practices. Though she does link her Foursquare to her Twitter, she said she ‘changed my settings so that people who I’m not friends with can’t see where I am as a safety precaution.’

Something you put on the Internet will most likely be accessible to all of mankind until the end of the world. If you believe in the indications of the Mayan calendar, you may not be all that concerned about the longevity of your technological faux pas, but the rest of you are probably looking at a life filled with reminders of every place you ever visited and a couple of trips to Best Buy to replace stolen items.

And out of all this, one question resonates most clearly: Just what is it that makes our generation so gluttonously obsessed with oversharing? Is it our innate need to be connected? And is that need a byproduct of our existence as, what my professor Michael Nilan calls us, part of ‘homo connectus,’ or the connected generation?

The truth is no one really cares if you use your sweet new Android phone to check into Wegmans. In fact, it could be considered a waste of data transfer. But the need for us to constantly communicate with each other and to share opinions and locations has become the newest human condition.

Said Cardella: ‘Sometimes it’s funny to check in somewhere and then realize your friend is right next door or at the same place.’

Jessica Smith is an information management and technology and television, radio and film dual major. Her column appears every Tuesday, and she can be reached at jlsmit22@syr.edu.

Published on January 31, 2011 at 12:00 pm