Anti-social media app helps you steer clear of 'friends'

If social networking services like Facebook and Twitter help you find your friends, this site helps you do exactly the opposite.

 

Aptly named "Hell is Other People," the service uses FourSquare to track a user's friends and help them plot routes to avoid them.

 

The catch? The service works only for friends using FourSquare.

 

"Hell Is Other People is an experiment in anti-social media. Using your FourSquare account, this site will track check-ins by your “friends” and calculate optimal locations for avoiding them," said developer Scott Garner.

 

Garner said the project is partially a satire and partially a commentary on his "disdain for 'social media.'"

 

He said he developed the project using the Express web application framework for Node.js and is hosted on the Heroku cloud application platform.

 

The map uses the Google Maps API with custom styling.

 

Garner describes himself as a "designer, developer and craftsman who continually strives to unite these skills into a cohesive creative voice."

 

A separate report on The Verge said the "optimally distanced safe zones" should help a user avoid friends signed into FourSquare.

 

Meanwhile, another article on Geekosystem.com said Garner managed to navigate around New York City for hours without having to worry about an awkward encounter with a friend.

 

“I actually really hate social media. I had to sign up for a social media site and talk to people to get them to be my friends on that site so that I could avoid them,” he said. — TJD, GMA News