These song lyrics accompanied a badge I earned in February 2010 while using Foursquare on my mobile phone. This location-based social-network service, created by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai and launched in 2009, offers its users opportunities to check in at real-world venues, earning rewards such as badges in the process. The badge I was awarded, appropriately titled “I’m on a Boat!,” is the reward for the first time one actually checks in on a boat in real life.
The problem, however, is that I never actually was on a boat. I checked in at Amsterdam Central Station to take the train to work. Foursquare’s virtual venues are supposed to be linked directly to real venues, but Central Station was virtually changed into something else. Amsterdam Central Station “ain’t Seaworld,” to quote The Lonely Island, but for Foursquare users, it suddenly was also no longer “as real as it gets.” And in case I would “ever forget,” Foursquare had automatically posted the fact that I had earned the badge on my Facebook wall, triggering friends to question not only my real location, but also my sincerity: “Have you started cheating?”