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Social Broadcasting: Where You Are vs. Where You Aren’t

I’d like to revisit the implications of socially-broadcasting your location and status. Previously, I looked at social broadcasting from a security perspective — namely, the notion that by telling people where you are, you’re also telling people where you aren’t, which could open you up to shenanigans by ne’er-do-wells, or even crime (as in the “I’m on vacation, please break in to my house” scenario).

A similar thing can happen in a realm where the stakes aren’t so high, but the terrain is just as perilous. It’s a convoluted land of complex social norms, finely-calculated relationships, and polite fictions: the public social calendar.

This is social broadcasting in its most literal sense — you’re broadcasting what you’re up to, socially.

I’ve talked before about how publicly-viewable invitations have changed how people use RSVPs (especially how they’ve changed from actual indicators of intention, to signifiers of endorsement or aspiration.)

Now, when you throw public status updates, especially mobile status updates, into the mix, you add in a layer of self-accountability to your public responses.

At least, in potential — I don’t know that anyone is so aware of other peoples’ actions in real life. Or I hope not — it seems petty.

Here’s the scenario — previously, if you were invited to an event to which you didn’t want to attend (or you had a few competing events to choose from), you could beg off politely, give an excuse (washing my hair / food poisoning / just going to stay in and watch TV), and no one would know the difference (unless, of course, you ran into someone who later ratted you out).

Now, though, unless you’re really self-disclipined, you might find that posting an otherwise-innocuous status update causes you to out yourself in real-time (to say nothing about getting tagged in someone else’s photo later on) — by telling people where you are, you’re also telling the hosts you snubbed where you aren’t. And if you used a lame excuse or outright lie, you can bust yourself and cause some awkward moments down the line.

Call it truth and consequences.

We’ve seen this in work contexts (say, getting busted after skipping out of work to go to a Halloween party) as part of the broader theme of getting into trouble for posting stuff online.

Anyway, there are a couple of paths you can take to avoid this problem. The first is discretion (or alternately, obfuscation) and being really careful or ambiguous about what you socially broadcast. I don’t see this as viable in the long-term, since as we’ve seen, discretion tends to go out the window, especially after a few drinks.

The next course, of course, is transparency (it’s always transparency with us social media types, isn’t it?) — when you’re honest, you don’t need to worry about keeping your lies straight. Of course, you want to be diplomatic as well; there are many ways to say “I’m holding out for a better offer” while sparing feelings.

The last method is disinformation — deliberately broadcasting false information about where you are and what you’re doing. I’m not sure why anyone would want to do this, unless they were crafting an alibi, shamelessly social climbing, or had really touchy friends.

Obviously, this isn’t a new phenomena — it’s just that social media and social broadcasting make these potential faux pas so much more accessible to everyone.

Anyway, I’ll throw it out to you — as the host of an event, have you ever paid close attention to what the ingrates who declined your invitation did in lieu of accepting your hospitality? Or, as an attendee, have you ever got busted by a status update that got back to the host? Please leave a comment.

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