Do we really want an augmented reality?

I feel like I’m fairly technologically forward-thinking. I mean, I embraced Facebook five years ago, I blog, I’m on Twitter, I own like five Apple products. Which is why I was surprised that I was surprised about coming across this article today from CNN about a new mobile browser called Layar that basically takes your cell phone’s camera and uses it as an interactive map that works with GPS locations and allows you to find out more information about the place you are in and the things you are looking at. It’s kind of hard to explain, so take a look at this demonstration from the application’s Web site:

The person in the video is looking for an apartment, and the realtors have placed information about each one using GPS, so basically, you could go walk around the Netherlands in nice areas and see what is for sale or rent around there. The same could work in malls, where you could look at inventory and see sales without even walking in. Drive by a movie theater and see movie titles, showtimes, reviews and prices. Pretty cool, huh? The possibilities are endless.

Well that’s the problem — the possibilities are endless. One of the ideas that the article hints at is using the technology to attach our tweets, business cards, Facebook profiles, etc. Information about us could be stored on our cell phones so that people could see where we’re headed, photos of us at parties, ages, addresses…see where this could cause trouble?

Facebook and Twitter are slopes slippery enough as they are, with the threat of hackers and stalkers tracking your every move and interaction. What about using the GPS technology so that when you walk into a restaurant, you could see right away if any of your Facebook acquaintances are in the room as well? What about if an angry ex-boyfriend could walk into the mall and see the same thing? What about people who are paid to be walking, talking spam messages? How easy would it be to solicit sex or drugs from a stranger on the street corner?

Now obviously with password protection there will be some restrictions, but virtual rules are made to be broken, as evidenced by the necessity to change my Facebook password every couple of months. You’re not immune from onlookers just because of eight digits.

We’re reaching, I think, a crossroads in social media. I already think we may be at a point where we share too much about ourselves on the internet, and it is getting a lot of people in trouble. Facebook has gone from an online college yearbook that your friends could sign to basically a virtual representation of your life. Fortunately, right now those issues are contained to a computer, but with this “augmented reality” phenomenon gaining legs, we could soon be looking at a new world where it’s not about what we say to someone, it’s about what we post for everyone.

It’s a world where we could be watched everywhere we go, and that, to me, is a terrifying concept.