Foursquare Apps Help You Avoid Your 'Friends'

It’s called social networking, but thanks to new apps, Foursquare is getting more anti-social. Avoidr allows you to select which “friends” you want to avoid—it shows you where they've checked in so you don't do the same. Its creator thinks of it as somehow less “passive-aggressive” than defriending someone entirely. “It's so formal to unfollow or unfriend someone,” he tells New York, but with his app you can avoid your ex less awkwardly.

Another app called nosquares similarly shows you where other Foursquare users have checked in—just in case you want to go somewhere no one will recognize you. It was “mostly just a playful joke,” says its creator. “We were going through this furious crunch time at work, and I didn't want my co-workers to see me going out for a drink after work.”
(More Foursquare stories.)