Foursquare Foreplay

Over at NakedCity LA, our editrix wrote a piece about how to use Foursquare to be a good liar and avoid other people (leave it to her to find a way to make social media anti-social).

She makes no secret of the fact that she thinks people who give away their location and get competitive over mayorship, a title with no merit, are patently insane, which is why we are quite gleeful to post the following excerpt from a recent The New York Times article. Seems our editrix missed a key function to the social network — how hot people get when they pit themselves against one another.

Last fall, Matthew Wilson, 29, a pharmaceutical salesman from Tampa, Fla., was visiting his alma mater, Mars Hill College in North Carolina, where he had been extremely active: fraternity president, track team, homecoming court. If he didn’t already feel ownership of the college, Mr. Wilson certainly did when he checked in and became its Foursquare mayor, his 93rd mayor title.

“The best part about being the mayor is the fact you’re the mayor,” Mr. Wilson said. “I know I can’t go in there and tell people how to do their jobs. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have an extra bit of swagger when I walked into the places.”

His swagger didn’t last. A few weeks later, he lost the title to someone named @CaitlinDaly. He, of course, stole it back. It went back and forth four times until they met, by coincidence, at a football game. Mr. Wilson was with his fraternity brothers, and Caitlin Daly, a pretty brunette, was sitting with her sorority sisters.

They quickly figured out who the other person was, and the trash talking started. They dated for three months and are getting married next September.

Foursquare as a tool in the dating kit? That’s the great thing about tools — they can be used for everything.