I’ve became more outgoing ever since I’ve started using foursquare*. I believe it’s because it has forced me to be competitive with my friends. It’s not that I was a homebody prior to this, it’s just that I had my favorite places that I frequented but newer places gave more points.

There, I said it.

Thanks to foursquare, I’ve visited venues that I would usually not go to, try new food, discovered deals, met incredible people —  all this from my mobile app.

All of those aren’t terrible results right? Wrong.

For the past year that I’ve been using foursquare, I’ve had this abnormal desire to always remain mayor. Working in advertising, I should have been extremely aware of the psychology behind this, however I’ve only recently paid close attention to what foursquare has been doing to my mind — and to my soul.

The Day that I got “ousted.”

I was mayor of most of the venues in my neighborhood. The day that I got ousted out of majority of those venues, I checked the profile of the owner and realized that she was mayor of over 40 venues. I realized that she had a bigger problem than me when I checked the names of the venues. I’m certain that “My House,” “My Home,” “Chateau de moi,” and “Mi Casa” are all the same locations. I shouldn’t have been shocked since I’m aware that people check into bathrooms of buildings or conference rooms. I had a slight disappointment then I shrugged it off since the venues didn’t  improve my life in any way.

Rewards

It’s pretty nice to get a small discount when I check into Maoz between certain hours. I know that the Victoria Secret deal is fake and Payless had a pretty good deal if I spent $25. Once, I even got a pack of cards because I check in. However, the benefits of being mayor doesn’t outweigh the time and, shockingly, the money, to continue your reign. If these people are indeed heading to these venues to purchase things on a daily basis to retain mayorship, depending on the venue’s popularity, it might be fair to say that they waste most of their time. Or, everyone knows they are cheating right?

I still think that I have a problem, though minor. Foursquare recently updated and introduced a feature that tells you how many days until you have your mayorship back. Sometimes when I check into places where I once was mayor and it alerts the days until  I regain “the position,” I consider going back the next day to check-in, just in case. A coworker asked me to stop checking in for 9 days so that he could become mayor of our company. Since I will be starting a new job soon, he’ll get it, until then, I’m King — um, I mean mayor. I realized that this has also affect other venues when I take vacation. I made peace with the fact that I might lose most of my mayorship. After all, I’m about to travel soon and how long is it going to take to lose those few venues that I check in on a daily basis?