Taking the "Social" Out of "Social Life"

It's been sad to watch people's definition of "social" evolve over the years. 10 years ago, if you described someone as "social" it probably meant they had a lot of friends and spent a lot of time going out to social gatherings like bars, concerts, or wherever. Now social means you have a Facebook or Twitter and a bunch of "friends" or followers (I use quotations back there because really, how many of your Facebook friends have you met in person?). Now that line is blurring even more with the new app SceneTap.

SceneTap is an app connected to cameras that are mounted in bars and clubs that estimate the number of patrons, average age, and male to female ratio of a particular bar so you can check to see if it's somewhere you want to go. It also tracks recent data from the bars it covers. Most of you just read that (as did I) and thought "Wow, that's pretty awesome! No more nights at an empty bar or sausagefest!" but take a minute to think a little further down the road.

RIGHT NOW the app is great because it's still got a small base of people using it but think 10 years down the road. If the app really takes off and every bar in every town has a camera installed and 90% of people use the app NOBODY WILL EVER GO OUT AGAIN! If it gets to a point where more than half of people are checking an app to see if people are at a bar/club before going out... EVERYBODY WILL BE AT HOME CHECKING THEIR SMART PHONES!

And that's even looking at the issue of invasion of privacy. Right now the cameras don't record faces or personal information, but how hard would it be to install upgraded cameras and/or software to start tracking where people frequent and selling that info to corporate America (basically just like Facebook does every time you log on and keep browsing the internet)? Nothing! Just the monetary push to make it worthwhile.

And if this trend continues, what's next? An app that tells us when the bathroom at work is vacant? An app to check and see if lines at the grocery store are short?

Don't wait for your phone to tell you it's ok to go out and live life. Just open the door and step out.