I'm Going To Pretend Someone Cares About My Life On Plancast

On my quest to discover new and exciting media, I have come across some fascinating trends. One trend I have noticed, is that people would really like to tell the whole world what they are doing at every second of the day. It isn't enough to change your Facebook status to tell others you are at work. Or to tweet that you are in just "like the longest Trader Joe's line everrr". Or to Foursquare that you are hanging out at Le Pain Quotidien. I don't want to be to critical, because I don't necessarily think these activities are a bad thing--it's just that it is a fine line. I'm not sure where using the internet to connect with friends in new and helpful ways ends and extreme overshare begins. So since I myself haven't really figured out where I stand on the issue I will attempt to refrain from snarky comments about Plancast in order to protect myself from appearing like a hypocrite in the future.

This basically says everything you need to know about Plancast, "The main idea is that while many people use Foursquare and similar location-based services like Gowalla and Loopt to share where they are, Plancast is about sharing where they will be." My first reaction to that quote was "Wow, this service sounds so unnecessary and stupid. I would like to cry now," but I decided to put my mockery aside in an attempt to be impartial. So I decided to give Plancast a try and as with almost all of these internet sites I try out, none of my friends are on it and it is unlikely any of them will join anytime soon. Broadcasting my plans feels sort of like tweeting did for me when I first started--like I'm yelling personal dribble into the vacuum of space. Fun! However, with Plancast I can tweet out my plans or send them as Facebook status updates to let my friends who aren't on the service know what I'm up to (let's be honest though, no one gives a shit what I'm doing).

Final verdict time--this could be something. The minor difference between Foursquare and Plancast seemed really silly to me at first, but after thinking about it and using it a little bit I realize that Plancast really does offer a completely different service. If you are looking for a way to organize an event or even just see if there is anyone who would like to tag along with you somewhere, Plancast would be really helpful. I plan on exploring this thin line between "hey anyone wanna..." and "OMG why the hell won't Chelsea shut up about her stupid plans?" In the end though, I'll probably just continue to ask people if they want to hang out the old fashioned way-- good old face-to-face text messaging.