Are trivial Foursquare Twitter updates especially annoying, or just more of the same? Twitter was built for trivial status updates. Then came link sharing. (Remember, URL shortening wasn’t built into Twitter at the beginning.) Even today, everything on Twitter can be divided into two categories: status updates and shared content.

The most common indictment of Twitter in its early days (and still, probably), is “Why would I care what you’re doing?” My dad joined Twitter in April, 2009. His first tweet, intended to satirize Twitter, was:

From an editorial standpoint, status updates can be divided into three categories:

1. Non-trivial: “I just got married.” “We just had a 5.9 earthquake!”
2. Trivial-interesting: “I’m having lunch in the restaurant at the top of the Eiffel Tower
3. Trivial-highly-uninteresting: “I’m tired.” “I’m at Starbucks.”

Non-trivial updates can be interesting not only to one’s friends, but can in some cases carry important information. During times of natural and man-made disasters, for example, non-trivial updates were often the first source of local news coverage, well ahead of traditional news media. Trivial-interesting updates also give us color commentary on the lives of our friends.

What’s left are the trivial-highly-uninteresting updates, which are to many people totally worthless and annoying. It’s no surprise for example that on Friday morning, I am tired and in need of coffee, so I don’t tweet that and I don’t use Foursquare to convey that.

These updates do have several purposes. Location information is another dimension of social networking. For everyone with a complete profile on a couple of networks, we know their city, employer, favorite music, etc. But knowing where they are right now brings additional context. If we see that a friend has checked in at a particular cafe or restaurant, we can use that information to meet up. Repeated check-ins at a certain location over time by our circle of friends also serve as a de facto review system for local businesses, with check-ins representing votes for the best places.

Which brings me to the question and premise of my headline. Has Foursquare increased the amount of trivial noise on Twitter? We certainly had mundane check-ins before Foursquare, but a couple of things have changed, I think. One is that Foursquare both automates and rewards check-ins of the most banal nature, so they may have become more prevalent. “I’m at Safeway.” “I’m at the post office.” “I’m at Home Depot.” These updates are non-information to many people, including everyone outside of a 15-mile range of the person who publishes them, (with the exception of marketers who find this information useful).

I have used Foursquare to find and meet up with friends, so I know it works that way. I also “watch” some pretty interesting people check in at some fascinating locations, and I enjoy that.

In an attempt to keep my own boringness/annoyance level down, I try to keep my Foursquare check-ins interesting. I don’t check in anywhere completely ordinary and generic (with the exception of cafes) like the examples above. When I see someone check in at a gas station, my thought is “wow, you buy gas?” I do check in at cafes so I can find friends in the area, but most often, I don’t push those updates to Twitter and Facebook (this is an option when you post on Foursquare) so only friends on Foursquare see them.

What do you think? Do Foursquare check-ins on Twitter add useful information to the conversation? Do you like seeing where your friends are, or are these updates boring/annoying? Have you unfollowed/unfriended any frequent Foursquare abusers?

Tags: foursquare, trivial, check-ins