Living a GPS-aware Lifestyle"

It happend again... ahm sorry let my explain. But my new favourite past-time is searching articles I read once, couldn't get out of my head and now refuse to give up on on searching. My latest addition to this all time consuming hobby of scrolling the source to the date it might have been published is: "2009 I Am Here: One Man’s Experiment With the Location-Aware Lifestyle".

Because the internet is getting worse just like this again with the recent Social Media closure of CoHost (but I love all your little websites and blogs :)) it might be fun to revisit a time where: "The location-aware future—good, bad, and sleazy—is here. Thanks to the iPhone 3G and, to a lesser extent, Google's Android phone, millions of people are now walking around with a gizmo in their pockets." This was once all the rage! I mean 3G baby, it takes two more generation for us to have thinfoil people tell us that 5G will do something to us. Anyways I and YOU are not here to roll around in this kinda dirt.

We are here because you want to live a lifestlye where you:

  1. Know where you friends are so you can hook up (in a nonsexual way?) when you are near each other in the big city.
  2. Find out new cool things that happen near you.

You carry around with you a smartphone that has constant GPS connection and knows where you've been on the 28.09.2024 at 16:23 (note from editor: yes at home thank you). Having multiple free map services at your fingertip you might not even need to learn the culture technique of reading maps. Having this constant easy to access and easy to use possibility of navigation is actually incredible when you think about past generations and how they got around. But how should one use this power?

You might want to "Find My Friends" on a digital map. This feature is I think from the aera of the article but I never used it until recently. As I was on a festival and wanted to know where my peers are. Too bad that there were 40k other people that carried this super machines with GPS with them too. I couldnt see where my friends were at this festival. But back home I thought about what this new found power means to me.

One major argument for it is safety as when you are out somewhere and are not seen the next day someone has an idea where you might have been or where your phone got stolen at least. The other more utopian ideal version is that when you want to do something and you can see the person being at home or in a metro you might feel free to ask them if they want to hang out. At the same time when you see people out and were not invited (because of a numerous reasons) you might experience FOMO way more as to when you just heard about it the next time you saw someone. This little surveillance might not feel right to you or you just might not carry a smartphone with you at all then the idea of sharing a location indefinitely might not be for you <3.

But a problem even if you would be onboard is that as Max Raabe sang "little lies don't hurt"). When you dont want to go to a birthday party but end up running over the entire town when your excuse was that you are ill might end up hurting them more than you think. Or when they said didn't feel like going to the concert with you today but they are meeting with other people instead. But as Shel once pointed out "If they didn't want to be here they wouldn't be—and if they're here anyway, that's not my problem". Humans are humans and they lie. The only thing for you to do is either ignore it as they will have their reasons to act the way they did or break up... I have no solution and of this writing I am still thinking about if we maybe just should lie? But I think sometimes the truth just might hurt each other more. I really dont know.

Anyways what about finding about cool events near you? Maybe Google Maps might be helping here: but I mostly see the "big" sightseeing spots and the KFC at the central station as it got an advertisement running right now. >Oh don't forget your Starbucks cup sweety :P!. A map service that helped me find new routes, free to use toilettes and beaches just by searching the word "beaches "was Organic Maps as it relies on OpenStreetMaps Data I found to be the most accurate and detailed version (except intersections where Apple Maps is super detailed here.)

Map making is always political (See this great video from Jay Foreman as an explaniation). Including beaches in your map search for example that don't have a Restaurants that offers martinis might be good for you but not that restaurants. Anyways if I am not looking for a restaurant but for an activity I mostly look for:

  1. Posters
  2. stickers
  3. websites of spaces I know about
  4. digital calendars of spaces I know about
  5. or someone who is kind enough to tell me

I never search googe maps for this kinda information as I dont think that it even tries to do that :D. If someone wants the analog world to connect with the internet they now just use QR Codes as of COVID.

I think it is kinda sweet to know where your friends are but you should not abuse or stalk your friends because of the knowledge you acquired. You may start cooking if you know they left the house or you might run up to the train station as you know they arrive shortly. This tech should be used as a connector and not a reason to fight.

Stay safe!