I can’t help but wonder: Is it really a good idea to broadcast your exact location at any given time of the day to the entire internet world?

I am normally not one to see the potential negative side to things but from the word go this whole “I’m at…” trend seemed to be incredibly stupid to me. Maybe I’ve just had one too many run ins with stalkers and have learned my lesson, maybe I’m paranoid. Either way having untold numbers of strangers knowing my EXACT location at any moment is really frightening.

Do I really want anyone to know when I’m home alone? Or when no one is at my house at all? No. I do not wish to be at home alone when some weirdo breaks in, nor do I wish to have all my shit stolen. Do you want just anyone to know your teenager is home alone? Yeah I’m guessing the answer is no. Yet Twitter users young and old are happily tweeting this information to anyone who cares to read it and coupled with GPS services that attach your EXACT location to your tweets, you have taken all the leg work out of stalking, kidnapping and breaking and entering. You are creating a log of your daily routine, when you come and go, where you shop and when. Throw in one of those fun apps that lets you find other Twitter users who live in your city and you’ve narrowed the field significantly. Criminals are already using technology to make it easier to commit crimes, Twitter can just be another tool that requires no more effort than clicking the Follow button.

While I can see no benefit to all of this location tweeting, I can see a lot of potential abuse and misuse. How long before we are hearing stories of a young girl being kidnapped, raped or killed by someone who was stalking her on Twitter and used her location tweets to track her down at home alone? Predators have infiltrated MySpace and Facebook, there is no reason to believe they aren’t on Twitter as well.

While these are nice attempts to regulate and protect, you don’t have to sign up for Twitter to read tweets if the account is not set to private.

Google and Yahoo to kick sex offenders of social networks

Illinois prohibits sex offenders from using social networking sites

So yeah, I’m gonna pass on that whole “Hey world look where I’m at right now” trend.