I swear I'm not a Luddite, but I just don't see the advantage of these apps versus going out and meeting new people, no matter whether it's at a coffee shop, on the street, in a park, at a conference or at a bar. Investing your time in a few five minute conversations has got to be a better way to meet interesting new people than broadcasting your interests in a 100-yard radius and having an algorithm match you to people who happen to agree with your choice of keywords (and have to be using the same app.)
Can someone explain the appeal of these "ambient location" apps?
I agree. Perhaps I'm getting too old, but it just seems creepy to approach someone you "found with your phone" vs. just striking up a conversation in a line or at the next table in a restaurant.
Remember that both of you are running this app to meet using it, so you're already on the same page with "found with your phone". That's less creepy than tapping the shoulder of the guy in the next restaurant booth and asking "hey, are you interested in obscure topics X, Y or Z? ...sorry, just asking..." Even an amicable "just struck up a conversation" may very well not touch on topics which are rarely shared but are of great interest if known ("you took a course from Jeff Cooper too? [hours of intense chatting ensues]").
Um, Grindr is for casual homosexual encounters, which is admittedly a big market, but not as big as "lonely in a new city and looking to meet new people".
Glancee looks wonderfully polished, I'll give it a spin and see if it works.
Well, no single size fits all, and it's easy to dismiss any app if it doesn't hold a personal appeal. However, it's often more difficult to strike up a conversation with a random stranger than if it were enabled with some sort of context. In other words, the pretty girl in the coffee shop might have no interest in talking to me normally, but if we somehow found out that (1) we were both interested in making new friends, and (2) we were both into Dostoyevsky and Phish, then hey -- serendipity enabled!
Of course, the first thing I'd talk about is what a silly way to meet, cellphones and the Internet and such, but hey---it got the job done.
Good point, but I think they want to go well beyond pretty girls in coffee shops. I like that they use your Facebook likes behind the scenes to generate connections that might be serendipitous.
I recently read about a study that found strangers were generally far more friendly and willing to talk and initiate conversation when they had a known shared interest. In the case of the study, they found over 20x more initiated interactions from strangers when a woman walked with a dog than without.
Finding someone nearby that might share an interest who is also open to meeting people through this application seems like an easy way to broadcast those interests. For those who are trying to become less introverted or meet others, these apps seem like they could be useful tools.
Collis, G.M & McNicholas, J. 'Dogs as catalysts for social interactions: robustness of the effect' in British Journal of Psychology 91 (2000), pp. 61-70
Think of it as a shortcut, not a substitute, for going out and meeting new people in the same way that going to a conference or bar is.
If your goal is to meet new people that might become friends or repeat acquaintances, you probably don't just start talking to random people on the street. You could, but most of them won't be interested, or you won't be able to find substantial common ground in the few minutes that you have to make a connection. Conversations will be short and awkward, as you fumble to find an topic that you and your target can both be interested in. At least, that's been my experience as a shy, fairly introverted guy - if you're a smooth, sociable person with a lot of experience interacting with people, you might have more success. If you do, more power to you. You probably don't need ambient location apps!
However, if you want to minimize both time spent and awkwardness, it's a good idea to put yourself in some kind of context where anyone you meet will have a shared experience or interest that you can use to break the ice. If you go to a sports bar during a football game, most people there will have some interest in the sport in question. If you go to a conference, most of the people there will be there because they're interested in the topic of the conference. If you go to a coffee shop, you're either there to drink coffee, or you're doing something while drinking coffee that could be the subject of a conversation. These are all stronger shared contexts than incidental contexts like "random person I saw on the street" or "guy I stood behind in the grocery store checkout line". I don't know about you, but when random people in the checkout line start talking to me about how long the line is, I get a little creeped out.
"Ambient location" apps are just a high-tech extension of that idea of shared context. You get an easy way to find people that a) have some kind of shared interest with you, determined by the app's algorithm and b) have explicitly decided to look for social contact by installing the app and setting up a profile. It's just a way to opt-in to social situations that might have otherwise gone unexplored because you never encountered the person in a context that gave you cause to talk to them.
> The app compares your Likes in common with Wikipedia listings to identify similar categorical interests. Examples I’ve seen: If the other person likes The New Yorker, a line of text might say “You like The Econoimst.” If they like The Sopranos, it says “You like Mad men.” Sometimes these comparisons end up better than others, but overall the feature does succeed in showing you things loosely in common that might not have been obvious if you only compare Likes.
This is something a few people asked for. What would you like to use it for? Besides matching people to people, you can match people to products (if properly tagged). Do you see other uses for something like this?
I don't understand this desire to only meet people who are similar to yourself. I want to meet people who are interested in, have done and are passionate about different things than me. I don't know about you, but talking about the same old thing again and again is boring to me.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 39.5 ms ] threadCan someone explain the appeal of these "ambient location" apps?
The rest can't beat actually going out and meeting people. Easier than many might imagine.
Glancee looks wonderfully polished, I'll give it a spin and see if it works.
... which can turn into incredibly helpful proper friendships, especially in new cities.
Of course, the first thing I'd talk about is what a silly way to meet, cellphones and the Internet and such, but hey---it got the job done.
Finding someone nearby that might share an interest who is also open to meeting people through this application seems like an easy way to broadcast those interests. For those who are trying to become less introverted or meet others, these apps seem like they could be useful tools.
Collis, G.M & McNicholas, J. 'Dogs as catalysts for social interactions: robustness of the effect' in British Journal of Psychology 91 (2000), pp. 61-70
If your goal is to meet new people that might become friends or repeat acquaintances, you probably don't just start talking to random people on the street. You could, but most of them won't be interested, or you won't be able to find substantial common ground in the few minutes that you have to make a connection. Conversations will be short and awkward, as you fumble to find an topic that you and your target can both be interested in. At least, that's been my experience as a shy, fairly introverted guy - if you're a smooth, sociable person with a lot of experience interacting with people, you might have more success. If you do, more power to you. You probably don't need ambient location apps!
However, if you want to minimize both time spent and awkwardness, it's a good idea to put yourself in some kind of context where anyone you meet will have a shared experience or interest that you can use to break the ice. If you go to a sports bar during a football game, most people there will have some interest in the sport in question. If you go to a conference, most of the people there will be there because they're interested in the topic of the conference. If you go to a coffee shop, you're either there to drink coffee, or you're doing something while drinking coffee that could be the subject of a conversation. These are all stronger shared contexts than incidental contexts like "random person I saw on the street" or "guy I stood behind in the grocery store checkout line". I don't know about you, but when random people in the checkout line start talking to me about how long the line is, I get a little creeped out.
"Ambient location" apps are just a high-tech extension of that idea of shared context. You get an easy way to find people that a) have some kind of shared interest with you, determined by the app's algorithm and b) have explicitly decided to look for social contact by installing the app and setting up a profile. It's just a way to opt-in to social situations that might have otherwise gone unexplored because you never encountered the person in a context that gave you cause to talk to them.
> The app compares your Likes in common with Wikipedia listings to identify similar categorical interests. Examples I’ve seen: If the other person likes The New Yorker, a line of text might say “You like The Econoimst.” If they like The Sopranos, it says “You like Mad men.” Sometimes these comparisons end up better than others, but overall the feature does succeed in showing you things loosely in common that might not have been obvious if you only compare Likes.
Any chance of making this an API sometime soon?