A Glympse (into the abyss)

Hey, you! Yes, You. I want you to know where I am and let you track my movements on a website in real-time. What's that? You don't give a flying Foursquare? Well, tell that to the programmers of Glympse.

It's a new app that lets Self-Important You broadcast your location to your co-workers, family, or friends so they can then watch your movements on their PCs or smart phones.

My question, as with all these types of things, is "Why?!" I cannot envision any circumstance under which this would be useful. If you're going to be ten minutes late, just be ten minutes late; I don't want track you like I'm running fucking NORAD. I don't know how you work, but if someone I'm meeting with hasn't shown up by the time agreed on, I'm looking over my to-do list, responding to Email, or catching up on reading.

As the chirpy video guide shown above says, "My family likes to watch me as I head home." Listen, Chirpy, If your family has nothing better to do than watch a blip that represents you move towards their location, you might want to get them part-time jobs, or hobbies, or buy them books or something.

Orwell was wrong: we weren't forced into living in a surveillance society, we welcomed it. Big Brother is Watching Us, through channels we've put in place and happily pay for. Congratulations! You're the Mayor of Airstrip One.