Dana and I are obviously big Foursquare users – you can actually pinpoint the moment Dana is about to lose Roll Up The Rim To Win. Even Stitch’s mascot, Kingsley is in on the action. So it saddened me to learn from Valleywag last week that we are all a bunch of narcissists.

Brian Moylan‘s blog post is a humorous examination of Foursquare’s lack of value. The author assumes the competitive reward system that allows users to become mayor of specific locations is the only motivation for people to use Foursquare, and pokes holes in the meaninglessness of the game while warning of the potentially awkward social dangers involved in announcing your location to the world. It bears a striking resemblance to some criticisms of Twitter when that was reaching a tipping point.

Ever since the dawn of BBS, internet users have been developing online personas that reflect themselves onto the world wide web. From Geocities sites to Blogger to Friendster to Myspace to Facebook, early adopters of these technologies are the first to be called narcissists from anyone afraid to put details of their own personal lives on the Internet.

The worlds of Facebook and Twitter and Foursquare may exploit a bit of their users’ narcissism, but when all that seemingly useless data gets collected, real rewards to using these services emerge. Users can learn about neighbourhoods around them, get insider tips from like-minded Foursquare users about what to try at a restaurant, and find out which friends are nearby.

I think the “narcissist” criticism stings a bit because most people associate narcissism with being so self-absorbed that the needs and feelings of others do not matter. Narcissism is about shutting people out, but using Foursquare or Twitter couldn’t be further from that. Social media is a way to reach out to people. And when you throw in a locative element, it’s about mapping out a neighbourhood of friends and finding your community.

Blogs were once criticized as kids writing in their pyjamas in their parents’ basement, but at least we’ve reached a point where you can’t make that accusation about someone who is checked in at their favourite restaurant.