Open AccessChecking in: A phenomenological study of active users of geolocational tagging services
Author(s) -
Smith Carol E.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
proceedings of the american society for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1550-8390
pISSN - 0044-7870
DOI - 10.1002/meet.14504901300
Subject(s) - social media , relation (database) , meaning (existential) , key (lock) , computer science , world wide web , qualitative research , exploratory research , feature (linguistics) , internet privacy , data science , multimedia , sociology , psychology , computer security , social science , linguistics , philosophy , psychotherapist , database
Geosocial check‐in services are a relatively new feature of social media, used by a small but growing percentage of social networking enthusiasts. The purpose of this exploratory phenomenological study is to develop an initial qualitative understanding of the practices, interests, needs, and motivations of active users of mobile geosocial check‐in services, and the meaning that they ascribe to the use of geotagging services in their daily life. Through interview analysis and rich description, five key themes emerge. Geosocial check‐in services are found to be more than just a novel feature present in social media applications – users employ them to bind together the internal, social, and virtual dimensions of their modern lives, and to situate these dimensions in relation to the physical world around them.