Growing up in a rural Waikato dairy town our local Four Square was a mainstay of my pre-teen years.  It’s there, from memory, I purchased my first packet of flavoured crisps (Chicken – a new taste sensation).  Packaged rice risotto was an exotic luxury I occasionally convinced my mother to add to the shopping basket (the store wasn’t big enough to warrant trolleys). And sherbet fruit lollies were four for one cent.

Four Square stores are now largely the stuff of nostalgic memories, with the friendly grocer-in-apron logo now more likely to be seen on T-shirts and music compilations than actual store fronts.

Increasingly I now think the modern day Foursquare location-based smartphone app may also be subject to the same fate – once hugely popular, but will it remain relevant in a fast-changing world?

And this from a one-time Foursquare addict.  Until a couple of months ago, I checked in everywhere, and was mayor of numerous Wellington cafes, shops.. . even the Bucket Fountain.  I couldn’t order a coffee before checking in and, under the app’s early rating system, had checked in more times than any other Wellington user. Sad but true. 

But while I may have an addictive nature I’m also capable of weaning myself off things.  I gave up smoking and other vices from my youth years ago. Now I’ve refrained from checking in on Foursquare since Saturday, September 17.

Why? Because I came to the conclusion it is, currently, a pretty meaningless past-time here in New Zealand.

I’d never been one to share my location with friends – I couldn’t care less where they were having a flat white or picking up a pizza and I figured my life was no more interesting to them. And without that need to share, what else does Foursquare really offer?

New Zealand retailers and other businesses have yet to embrace Foursquare in any meaningful way, as they have in New York where the app was launched and its creators are based. There are a few rare exceptions, of course – thanks Mojo Coffee!

And that’s the true fabric of Social Media – it is ever changing as trends, apps and platforms come and go. Opportunities for businesses to engage using different platforms are tested, reviewed, embraced or discarded.  

So, I’ve checked out of the check-in scene.  And while I’ve not deleted the app entirely, it sits unused alongside other equally memory-wasting apps I’ve downloaded - Barcode Scanner, Google Sky Map and Spirit Level Plus spring to mind.

Regrets? No.  Life’s all about discovering new things.  I still love chicken flavoured crisps, first delivered by Four Square Version c1971, Ngatea, and according to Foursquare Version 2011.10.13 I’m still mayor of some 50 locations including the New Wing Tak Laundry in Happy Valley, Hong Kong. 

So, anyone out there in check-in land who feels they may benefit from Foursquare addiction counselling, let me know. We’ll do it over an unchecked-in coffee.