Free Beer Tonight

Now that I have your attention.

Who knew that beer and stalking could go so well together?

Tonight from 6 - 8 pm Slane is offering free draft beer to anyone who broadcasts their location from the bar using meetnowlive.com from their CrackBerries or iPhones.

I had no idea what this Web site was, so I did a little investigating. From first glance the site is a way to tell your friends and possibly random strangers where you are, and you are also able to see "where the party is," according to their homepage. I thought that's what Google Stalker was for.

Seriously, can't we just text our friends to let them know what we're doing? Forget calling, that has been out of style since 1998. Now we are getting so impersonal that we just look up our friends' location by a signal from their phones. No need to ask.

All of these stalking applications are freaking me out. Imagine Google Stalking someone you're dating - how sketchy is that. Once you accept them, you can never lie about what your doing. And when the relationship is over, someone is going to be staring at their phone searching for the location of that person. Just. Plain. Creepy.

Our communication skills are going down the gutter. Between Facebook, Twitter and Google Stalker there is almost no need to personally contact someone. I enjoy these networks as much as the next Joe, but I'm reluctant to make them my main form of communication. I used to think texting was an excuse for guys not to call. Ha! Those were the good old days; now all they have to do is Tweet at you, or worse, find your location on their digital map.

So go get your free beer, broadcast to a network strangers where you are and see what happens. Don't bother calling to tell me - just update your Twitter status.